Ability Machines: What Video Games Mean for Disability

by Sky LaRell Anderson

Video games are both physically and cognitively demanding―so what does that mean for those with a disability or mental illness? Though they may seem at odds, Ability Machines illuminates just how vital video games are to understanding our bodies and abilities.

In Ability Machines , Sky LaRell Anderson shows us how video games can help us imagine what our abilities mean and how they engage us physically, behaviorally, and cognitively to envision our agency beyond limitations. On the surface, this can mean games provide power fantasies; more profoundly, games can fundamentally reshape cultural and personal understandings of mental health, illness, disability, and accessibility. Video games are indeed ability machines that produce a reimagined state of agency.

Featuring a comparative analysis of key video game titles, including Metal Gear Solid V , Wolfenstein II , Celeste , Devil May Cry 5 , Senua's Sacrifice , Hades , Automata , and more, Ability Machines tackles larger questions of ability and how our bodies relate to interactive media.

232 pages, Paperback

Published July 2, 2024

Reviews

[Joshua · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to read this book as a part of my dissertation literature review, and as such my advice is do not read this book unless you have to. This work is full of gross oversimplifications of the issues surrounding disability in games and borderline hysterical polemic against game developers and games journalists(page 62 & page 181-182). I myself have worked with both game developers and games journalists on accessibility products and did not see any of the demonizing characteristics Larell Anderson seems to enjoy highlighting. Additionally in his own words the author is not disabled(page 72) and as such does not have a firm grasp on some of the basic fundamentals of disability representation. It turns my stomach that this is the first widely available academic work in my field. I only hope that in the future people with actual disabilities are able to correct the erroneous wrong headed sentiments in this book and undo any unintended damage this author may have caused in the field of disability rights and accessible gaming.