Adaptive Arcade

Growing up, Steve Spohn’s primary way to connect with others was through videogames. Diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy as an infant, Spohn spent significant time in the hospital as a child.

“The only way to reach out to the world was through this very cool gaming setup that the hospital would bring into the room,” he recalled. An in-game friend “became my solace in a place where every day they were hurting me and I was scared.”

Spohn, director of the Mount Sinai Back to Life Center in New York City and former chief operating officer of AbleGamers, and Vicki Karlovsky, inclusion coordinator at Deerfield (Ill.) Public Library (DPL), discussed how libraries can bring that experience to a wider audience in “Adaptive Arcade at the Library: Videogames Are for Everyone.” The session was part of ALA’s 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Philadelphia.

DPL partnered with AbleGamers to host an open-house-style Adaptive Arcade event, featuring a PlayStation 5, a Nintendo Switch, and a gaming PC for use with games such as Rocket League and the Mario Kart series.

“Libraries are community hubs,” Karlovsky said. She added that NPR has reported an estimated 46 million gamers with disabilities in the US. “They’re living in the communities we serve, whether we’re aware of them or not.

“There are many ways to customize [controllers] for adaptive gaming,” Karlovsky noted, including homemade options and commercial ones—such as PlayStation Access and Logitech adaptive controllers, each of which costs $80 to $100. The library also 3D-printed several assistive devices for its open house.

DPL hosted the event in its large meeting room, which offered space for all three gaming stations as well as a 3D-printing demonstration and displays. Space accessibility is an important, potentially overlooked concern, ­Karlovsky observed. She also recommended offering a sensory break area, saying, “This is a raucous program, so it can be a bit overstimulating for anybody.”

“It’s not about the game, it’s about the connection.”—Steve Spohn, director of the Mount Sinai Back to Life Center in New York City

Both speakers emphasized that hosting an event like this doesn’t require a lot of experience.

“With the exception of the AbleGamers reps, none of us were experts,” Karlovsky said. “We were just enthusiastic and eager to learn.”

“It’s good to have great organizations to reach out to for help, but the truth is that it’s not necessary,” Spohn added. Experts in online gaming accessibility that he recommends include Radderss, Liana Ruppert, and DeafGamersTV.

Karlovsky acknowledged that reaching people with disabilities, particularly those who are not library users and may have had bad experiences with inaccessible libraries in the past, can be a challenge. But the successes are worth it. She shared an anecdote from another program where DPL brought accessible videogames to a local organization she often worked with.

“There was one person who had never been a gamer, but he tried Rocket League. As soon as he pressed the button and the car lurched forward, his whole face lit up,” Karlovsky recalled. “I’d never seen him this animated before.”

As Spohn emphasized: “It’s not about the game, it’s about the connection.”

A version of this article first appeared on americanlibraries.org on June 29, 2025.