Disability Dress in Video Games: Player Modding and Fashioning Disability Worlds in The Sims 4
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60923/issn.2611-0563/23051Parole chiave:
Assistive Technologies, Digital Fashion, Disability Representation, Fashion Hacking, Mobility AidsAbstract
This article examines how Disabled players use “mods” to create disability dress representation in The Sims 4. We frame modding, user-generated alterations to game assets and mechanics, as digital fashion hacking that extends Disabled people’s longstanding practices of altering garments to enable access, express identity, and resist normative aesthetics. Using textual analysis of gameplay, paratextual materials, and player discourse, we analyze how disability dress mods operate within and against the game’s design. Drawing on Fritsch’s access as friction and Halberstam’s queer failure, we argue that glitches, misfits, and breakdowns are not obstacles to inclusion but generative sites of creativity, critique, and community. We identify three recurrent player practices – navigating friction, embracing failure, and cultivating community – through which Disabled players fashion identities, share assets, and build disability worlds. Our findings contribute to fashion studies by positioning assistive technologies such as canes, wheelchairs, and hearing aids as critical dress objects in digital spaces and by theorizing modding as disability-led fashion hacking.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Daniel Drak, Ben Barry
Questo lavoro è fornito con la licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione 4.0 Internazionale.
