by Erin Hawley
When playing tabletop games, I can’t hold up cards or display my game tokens in an accessible way. I often rely on card holders or self-made player screens. Being a disabled gamer means you come up with your own hacks to make the hobby work for you. In my search for more accessible player aids, I came across UberStax, a component holder that is completely modular to fit your needs. Imagine those scrabble tile boards, except taller and sturdier, and in a variety of colors.
UberStax are made of injection-molded plastic and come in packets of six. Each of the six sections has pins and holes to piece them together, much like Legos. With the six parts, you can build a wide card holder or stack them on top of each other to create a two-tiered setup.
Every tabletop game comes with a unique set of challenges for disabled gamers. For example, in Diamonds, you start each round with a hand of ten cards. With a regular card holder, it’s difficult to fit them all on the holder with enough room to see all the options. With UberStax, I can snap together a few of the pieces for a comfortable play area. For a game of Qwirkle, where you have six wood blocks in front of you that you must keep secret from other players, I can stack two UberStax to fit all my tiles, freeing up table space for an otherwise sprawling game. I can also use this setup to move my components around without fear of accidentally toppling over the blocks, exposing what’s in my hand.
While I don’t have the strength or dexterity needed to put the UberStax together, my family had no trouble fitting the pieces for me. They connected and pulled apart easily. We found that the included six sections were enough for one player and the configurations I used, but we can see the need for another set if I were to play a meatier game with additional components. The two-tier setup can be a bit top heavy, especially if you’re using thick pieces like tiles, so an extra base part might be needed to keep it sturdy – and it’s something to consider if you have issues with fine motor control or tremors.
Besides the modular setup, another thing that sets the UberStax apart from other card holders I’ve used is the ability to see the entire card face. There is a small groove on the bottom that holds a component in place, and that’s it. With my other cardholders, the entire bottom half of a card is hidden, making it difficult to play any text-heavy games.
Overall, I am extremely pleased with the UberStax, and recommend them to any gamer, disabled or not, who wants an easy way to display their components. You can find UberStax at your local hobby shop or purchase them online.
*Much thanks to GameStax for sending this product for review free-of-charge. This blog post is not a paid endorsement, and I reached out to them first.
