Microsoft announces wheelchair avatars for disabled Xbox One gamers

Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, has confirmed on Twitter that player avatars will soon have a wheelchair option

A man plays on the Xbox One at E3 2013 (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

In a move that will make Xbox One avatars significantly more inclusive for gamers, Microsoft is planning to make wheelchair options available.

The news was confirmed by Xbox head Phil Spencer, who stepped into a conversation between two Twitter users discussing the possibility of creating a petition to bring in a wheelchair option for avatars, stating “no petition needed, we hear you. This is something we’ve already looked at, not far off.”

Shortly after this, Xbox engineering lead Mike Ybarra tweeted a “sneak peek” of the coming update which showed two Xbox avatars in wheelchairs that were not-so-subtly Xbox-themed. It’s also been noted that the avatars depicted in Ybarra’s sneak peek appear to be visually improved with more detailed faces, leading fans to wonder if there’s a more significant upgrade to be announced.

It wasn’t stated when the updated avatars will be made available but the next major Xbox One and PC update called Anniversary is coming in early August so there’s perhaps a chance we’ll hear more about these improvements then. Planning to include this avatar option is a positive move on the part of Microsoft that will make an important contribution towards improving gamer representation on the Xbox platform.