HCI: International
Sid Cook & Bryan Semaan
07/2026
Video games are often constructed, intentionally or unintentionally, to exclude certain identities and abilities. This is especially problematic for disabled individuals who often find challenges in accessing digital spaces without modification in some capacity. Through these modifications, disabled individuals are able to bridge existing infrastructure to afford access that was previously unattainable, thus supporting their ontological security and sense of routine stability. We conducted eleven semi-structured interviews with players of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Final Fantasy XIV: Online to understand these modding practices centering around attaining better access to gameworlds. Drawing on a conceptual framework centering disability scholarship and infrastructuring, we find that modding facilitates personalized and flexible access and, in turn, the establishment of ontological security. We discuss how this kind of modding serves as a method of access-oriented routine infrastructuring, and we then propose design guidelines supporting the concept of intentional malleability.