{"id":1117517,"date":"2026-06-15T08:30:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T15:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/?p=1117517"},"modified":"2026-06-14T07:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T14:34:08","slug":"downloadable-xbox-thumbstick-toppers-give-gamers-accessibility-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/2026\/06\/15\/downloadable-xbox-thumbstick-toppers-give-gamers-accessibility-options\/","title":{"rendered":"Downloadable Xbox Thumbstick Toppers Give Gamers Accessibility Options"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft has a history of taking accessibility options seriously for gaming controllers, and that trend continues with <a href=\"https:\/\/xboxdesignlab.xbox.com\/en-ca\/accessories\/adaptive-thumbstick-toppers-for-xbox-controllers\" target=\"_blank\">downloadable thumbstick toppers<\/a> for Xbox controllers. Being straight from the source, the 3D models should fit as well as can be expected with a minimum of fiddling. Just make sure you select the right controller model, because they are each subtly different.<\/p>\n<p>The toppers themselves come in different styles, and there&#8217;s a design to fit a variety of needs, from a thumb cradle to ones intended for more serious adaptations &#8212;\u00a0 the perforated X-shaped topper, for instance, is meant to anchor a custom shape molded overtop it.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Microsoft does offer <a href=\"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/2018\/05\/17\/open-gaming-to-everyone-with-a-controller-meant-to-be-hacked\/\">a remarkably hackable adaptive controller<\/a> that is meant to make it easy to integrate with other hardware, and we&#8217;ve seen it used in some <a href=\"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/2018\/11\/21\/dads-custom-xbox-adaptive-controller-build-for-his-child\/\">truly awesome ways<\/a>. But it&#8217;s nice to see an easy way to extend and adapt normal thumbsticks on regular controllers, giving people even more options.<\/p>\n<p>We love to see companies offer useful 3D models of their products, saving consumers from having to 3D scan or model things themselves. It&#8217;s a form of <a href=\"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/2020\/08\/20\/want-to-support-hacker-friendly-hardware-design-follow-valves-example\/\">hacker-friendly hardware design<\/a>, which we celebrate when we see it, while at the same time wishing it were more common.<\/p>\n<p>Have you benefited from hacker-friendly design and made something useful that wouldn&#8217;t exist otherwise? <a href=\"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/submit-a-tip\/\">Let us know on the tips line<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft has a history of taking accessibility options seriously for gaming controllers, and that trend continues with downloadable thumbstick toppers for Xbox controllers. Being straight from the source, the 3D <a href=\"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/2026\/06\/15\/downloadable-xbox-thumbstick-toppers-give-gamers-accessibility-options\/\" class=\"read-more\">&hellip;read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104030207,"featured_media":1117520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[422578065],"tags":[21377164,3471,422582854,422599773,502],"class_list":["post-1117517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-games","tag-3d-printed","tag-accessibility","tag-adaptive-controller","tag-hacker-friendly","tag-xbox"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/551470489_Custom-Hero-1084_Standard_1920x771_01-banner.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paBn4l-4GIt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104030207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1117517"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1117576,"href":"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117517\/revisions\/1117576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1117520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1117517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1117517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1117517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}