The most useful PlayStation and Xbox accessibility options | WIRED

Go to Controllers and you can customize the behavior of the DualSense Wireless Controller in several ways. For example, you can set custom button assignments—so the left trigger can become the right trigger, or whatever you need to make playing easier. You can also swap the functionality of the left and right sticks on the controller, as well as adjust the press-and-hold delay, the vibration intensity and the trigger effect intensity. Cheque Accessories of Settings for more options.

Closed Captions is where you can turn on closed captioning for videos—you get full control over the style of the captions, everything from the font style to the size to the opacity of the text. When and where these closed captions will appear depends on the apps you’re using and whether the content you’re watching supports captions, but this setting should be enough to enable closed captions wherever they’re available.

Finally, Chat Transcript turn voice chat from other players into text, so you can read what fellow players are saying rather than listening to it. Again, support for this depends on the specific game you’re playing. What’s more, you can use a connected keyboard to type out your own chats, which are then converted to audio for the people you’re playing with.

Microsoft Xbox Series X and Series S

On the Xbox side, start Institutions from the Xbox home screen (that’s the gear icon in the top right corner), then select Accessibility. On the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S, there are nine different sections to work through, including Night mode: It dims the screen at night so it’s easier on your eyes, and you can activate it manually or on a set schedule.

Open up Narrator and you can have text, buttons, and other items read to you on the screen—the accompanying options let you choose a voice speed, pitch, volume, and style. Note that Narrator works best if you have a keyboard connected. There is also Game and chat transcriptionwhich you can use to have voice messages from other players converted to text, while your own typed messages are also converted to audio if needed.