In 2021, accessibility advocates got the US Copyright Office to agree to a DMCA exemption that would make it legal for players to break a PC game's copy protection in order to make it playable for people with disabilities.
That decision was quietly reversed this year, all because nobody stepped forward to defend the exemption. As part of the same ruling that struck down a major game preservation effort back in October, the US Copyright Office also reversed the accessibility exemption it granted in 2021, as Game File (paywalled) reports.
DMCA exemptions last for three years, and in order to be extended, somebody has to come forward to advocate for them. Nobody did so for the accessibility exemption. "Given the constraints of the rulemaking process," the Copyright Office wrote in its ruling, "because the Office did not receive a petition to renew the current exemption, the Register is not able to recommend its renewal.
The Office continues to support enactment of a permanent exemption." Yes, you're reading that right - the government wants to make this accessibility exemption permanent.
The rules just mean it can't do so without an external advocate. The accessibility exemption allows - or rather, allowed - people to bypass copyright protection in order to add features like alternate controller support for PC games in order to help people with disabilities play them.