GoKawiilHow I Actually Play Video Games With SMA: The Tools I Use Every Day
My name is Andrei Cebotar. I’m 37, I live in Moldova, and I have Spinal Muscular Atrophy.
My hands get tired fast — by the end of the day I often can’t feel them at all. I can press one mouse button. That’s mostly what I have to work with. And yet I play games, I write, I have conversations online. This is how.
This isn’t a neutral roundup. These are the tools I use to access my computer and play games. Some of them are part of my daily routine, others I tried and eventually stopped using. What works for me may not work for everyone, but this is the setup I’ve built around my own needs.
PlayAbility — my face is my controller
PlayAbility is a free Windows app that maps facial expressions and head movements to any game input. You set it up through a webcam — no extra hardware. And it works with any PC game that accepts a standard controller or keyboard.
Here’s what my setup actually looks like in practice: I raise both eyebrows — my character jumps. I raise my left cheek — I drink a potion. I raise my right cheek — I activate a specific skill. These are real mappings I use in real games, right now.
What makes this work is that the gestures feel natural after a while. You stop thinking “raise left cheek” and just do it. The response is fast enough that it doesn’t break the flow of gameplay. And because it creates a virtual Xbox controller in the background, the game has no idea you’re not using a standard input — no mods, no special settings needed.
It also works outside of games. You can map expressions to mouse clicks, scrolling, keyboard shortcuts. For someone with one working mouse button, that’s not a small thing.
PlayAbility is free. There’s a paid Pro version if you want unlimited profiles, but everything works without paying.
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