{"id":94313,"date":"2019-02-08T11:35:32","date_gmt":"2019-02-08T16:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=94313"},"modified":"2019-02-08T11:35:32","modified_gmt":"2019-02-08T16:35:32","slug":"ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF Student Expands Gaming Accessibility with Custom Controllers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watching Aaron Cendan play a video game is like watching someone type. Instead of using a controller with joysticks, Cendan\u2019s fingers furiously click an array of buttons on one of his own custom creations. It looks like a rectangular box with buttons that allows him to perform every move needed in a game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn \u2018twitch\u2019 games or really fast-moving games, a millisecond can be a long time,\u201d Cendan says. \u201cSo having a controller that doesn\u2019t rely on joysticks can speed up your responses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cendan\u2019s custom controllers were inspired by a friend who could no longer play games because of a hand issue. \u201cI was surprised to find no custom controllers out there on the market, so I decided to try and build them myself,\u201d says Cendan.<\/p>\n

In 2018, he formed the company\u00a0Stickless\u00a0and started building the boxes for competitive and disabled gamers. Now he\u2019s got more orders than he can fill, making 85 custom controllers last year alone. This is on top of his graduate work in interactive entertainment<\/a> at UCF’s FIEA<\/a>, where he is in the production track with a focus on audio.<\/p>\n

Cendan says about half of his clients are disabled gamers who need a way to play their favorite games.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor so long accessibility was an afterthought in the game industry, and in every industry really. And that\u2019s no longer the case.\u201d \u2014 Aaron Cendan, FIEA student<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cFor so long accessibility was an afterthought in the game industry, and in every industry really,\u201d Cendan says. \u201cAnd that\u2019s no longer the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

The design process starts when Cendan gets clients to send a diagram of where their fingers touch the faceplate.<\/p>\n

Then he drills the button holes using that design and builds the rest of the controller using wood, circuit boards and a polycarbonate faceplate. A contract artist working in Brazil creates custom artwork based on the client\u2019s wishes. Each controller takes 8-12 hours to make.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really like doing it,\u201d Cendan says. \u201cI like helping people play who couldn\u2019t previously. And people seem to love them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aaron Cendan started his business wanting to help a friend. Now he\u2019s building controllers for competitive and disabled gamers around the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":94315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[3,5,6],"tags":[13775,17023,1687],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-94313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-colleges","category-community","tag-accessibility","tag-college-of-arts-and-humanities","tag-fiea"],"yoast_head":"\nUCF Student Expands Gaming Accessibility with Custom Controllers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Aaron Cendan, a UCF FIEA student, formed the company Stickless in 2018 and made 85 customer controllers in his first year.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UCF Student Expands Gaming Accessibility with Custom Controllers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Aaron Cendan, a UCF FIEA student, formed the company Stickless in 2018 and made 85 customer controllers in his first year.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UCF\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-02-08T16:35:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2019\/02\/ucf-fiea-aaron.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jenna Lee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@UCF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UCF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jenna Lee\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jenna Lee\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/bbcb2bbfa580f27936bd841c70479c63\"},\"headline\":\"UCF Student Expands Gaming Accessibility with Custom Controllers\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-08T16:35:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/\"},\"wordCount\":354,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2019\/02\/ucf-fiea-aaron.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"accessibility\",\"College of Arts and Humanities\",\"FIEA\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Arts & Culture\",\"Colleges & Campus\",\"Community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2019\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/\",\"name\":\"UCF Student Expands Gaming Accessibility with Custom Controllers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2019\/02\/ucf-fiea-aaron.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-08T16:35:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/bbcb2bbfa580f27936bd841c70479c63\"},\"description\":\"Aaron Cendan, a UCF FIEA student, formed the company Stickless in 2018 and made 85 customer controllers in his first year.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2019\/02\/ucf-fiea-aaron.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2019\/02\/ucf-fiea-aaron.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"UCF graduate student Aaron Cendan formed the company Stickless in 2018 and made 85 customer controllers in his first year.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UCF Student Expands Gaming Accessibility with Custom Controllers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/\",\"name\":\"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today\",\"description\":\"Central Florida Research, Arts, Technology, Student Life and College News, Stories and More\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/bbcb2bbfa580f27936bd841c70479c63\",\"name\":\"Jenna Lee\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62b74f75b8ec10c3b40a4cdb34f50be306f85337a2d71723299cffd78251c21f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62b74f75b8ec10c3b40a4cdb34f50be306f85337a2d71723299cffd78251c21f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jenna Lee\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/author\/je222296\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/#local-main-organization-logo\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\",\"caption\":\"University of Central Florida\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UCF Student Expands Gaming Accessibility with Custom Controllers","description":"Aaron Cendan, a UCF FIEA student, formed the company Stickless in 2018 and made 85 customer controllers in his first year.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UCF Student Expands Gaming Accessibility with Custom Controllers","og_description":"Aaron Cendan, a UCF FIEA student, formed the company Stickless in 2018 and made 85 customer controllers in his first year.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/","og_site_name":"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UCF","article_published_time":"2019-02-08T16:35:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2019\/02\/ucf-fiea-aaron.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jenna Lee","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@UCF","twitter_site":"@UCF","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jenna Lee","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/"},"author":{"name":"Jenna Lee","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/bbcb2bbfa580f27936bd841c70479c63"},"headline":"UCF Student Expands Gaming Accessibility with Custom Controllers","datePublished":"2019-02-08T16:35:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/"},"wordCount":354,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2019\/02\/ucf-fiea-aaron.jpg","keywords":["accessibility","College of Arts and Humanities","FIEA"],"articleSection":["Arts & Culture","Colleges & Campus","Community"],"inLanguage":"en-US","copyrightYear":"2019","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/","name":"UCF Student Expands Gaming Accessibility with Custom Controllers","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2019\/02\/ucf-fiea-aaron.jpg","datePublished":"2019-02-08T16:35:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/bbcb2bbfa580f27936bd841c70479c63"},"description":"Aaron Cendan, a UCF FIEA student, formed the company Stickless in 2018 and made 85 customer controllers in his first year.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2019\/02\/ucf-fiea-aaron.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2019\/02\/ucf-fiea-aaron.jpg","width":1200,"height":800,"caption":"UCF graduate student Aaron Cendan formed the company Stickless in 2018 and made 85 customer controllers in his first year."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UCF Student Expands Gaming Accessibility with Custom Controllers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/","name":"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today","description":"Central Florida Research, Arts, Technology, Student Life and College News, Stories and More","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/bbcb2bbfa580f27936bd841c70479c63","name":"Jenna Lee","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62b74f75b8ec10c3b40a4cdb34f50be306f85337a2d71723299cffd78251c21f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62b74f75b8ec10c3b40a4cdb34f50be306f85337a2d71723299cffd78251c21f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jenna Lee"},"url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/author\/je222296\/"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-expands-gaming-accessibility-with-custom-controllers\/#local-main-organization-logo","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"University of Central Florida"}]}},"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2019\/02\/ucf-fiea-aaron-300x200.jpg","primary_category":3,"primary_tag":1687,"author_byline":"Todd Deery","acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94313"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94317,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94313\/revisions\/94317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94313"},{"taxonomy":"tu_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tu_author?post=94313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}