Prior research has highlighted numerous accessibility barriers within virtual reality software, with guidelines emerging to address the requirements of diverse audiences. However, an empirical understanding of industry practitioner implementation of accessible guidelines within mainstream commercial applications is currently lacking. This review addresses this gap by categorising all accessibility features presented at a software-level in 330 of the most used virtual reality applications released between 2016 to 2023 on the Steam, Meta, Oculus, Viveport, and SideQuest platforms. Results suggest a growing lack of interaction customisation, with the number of applications allowing for alternative inputs and physical posture flexibility decreasing. Meanwhile, display output settings, such as text font resizing and colourblind alterations, are almost completely absent. Our findings highlight the evolution in the implementation of accessible features in virtual reality software, contributing to a representative overview of practitioner decisions, and acting as a catalyst towards the establishment of industry-wide guidelines.
Augmented reality (AR) is poised to transform remote communication with realistic user representations authentically simulating in-person interactions in one's own environment. While increased avatar realism is beneficial in various social contexts, as it generally fosters social presence, its impact in intimate interactions is less clear, possibly creating discomfort. We explored how varying avatar realism affects social presence and comfort in AR across different social interactions. Realism preferences were established in an online survey (N=157), informing our subsequent experiment (N=42). Participants engaged in remote AR collaboration and self-disclosure tasks with avatars ranging from abstract to realistic point-cloud. Quantitative and qualitative feedback revealed that higher avatar realism generally enhances social presence and comfort, though preferences can vary. The self-disclosure task increased social presence but reduced comfort compared to the collaboration task. This research provides an empirical analysis of avatar realism, highlighting the benefits of realistic avatars in various scenarios.
Head-worn augmented reality (AR) allows audiences to be immersed and engaged in stories told by live presenters. While presenters may also be in AR to have the same level of immersion and awareness as their audience, this symmetric presentation style may diminish important social cues such as eye contact. In this work, we examine the effects this (a)symmetry has on engagement, group awareness, and social interaction in co-located one-on-one augmented presentations. We developed a presentation system incorporating 2D/3D content that audiences can view and interact with in AR, with presenters controlling and delivering the presentation in either a symmetric style in AR, or an asymmetric style with a handheld tablet. We conducted a within- and between-subjects evaluation with 12 participant pairs to examine the differences between these symmetric and asymmetric presentation modalities. From our findings, we extracted four themes and derived strategies and guidelines for designers interested in augmented presentations.
Virtual Reality (VR) offers immersive experiences through advanced interaction mechanisms and rich sensory stimuli but is often inaccessible to blind people due to its over-reliance on visual feedback. While prior work has investigated specific aspects of VR accessibility, there is little knowledge on how to design full, feature-rich VR experiences accessible to blind people. This paper presents the design and evaluation of a VR Boxing experience, developed through participatory design with an ex-professional boxer who is now blind. A user study with 15 blind participants explored their perceptions of the three-mode experience developed - Heavy Bag Training, Coach Training, and Combat - to inform the design of accessible VR experiences. Our findings highlight the importance of combining natural movement, rich auditory feedback, and well-timed guidance that also fosters user independence. Furthermore, they demonstrate the value of structured progression in complexity, while also opening opportunities for engaging spatial awareness and coordination training.
Dark environment challenges low-vision (LV) individuals to engage in running by following sighted guide—a Caller-style guided running—due to insufficient illumination, because it prevents them from using their residual vision to follow the guide and be aware about their environment. We design, develop, and evaluate RunSight, an augmented reality (AR)-based assistive tool to support LV individuals to run at night. RunSight combines see-through HMD and image processing to enhance one's visual awareness of the surrounding environment (e.g., potential hazard) and visualize the guide's position with AR-based visualization. To demonstrate RunSight's efficacy, we conducted a user study with 8 LV runners. The results showed that all participants could run at least 1km (mean = 3.44 km) using RunSight, while none could engage in Caller-style guided running without it. Our participants could run safely because they effectively synthesized RunSight-provided cues and information gained from runner-guide communication.
Accessibility is a crucial concept in Virtual Reality (VR), pivotal for meeting the needs of users, including those with disabilities. In recent years, there is an increasing focus of VR products on enhancing the accessibility of a diverse range of digital content. Despite this growing attention from the VR community, there is a serious lack of empirical research on how VR practitioners consider VR accessibility. This includes their understanding of and insights into VR accessibility challenges and practices in the VR software development life cycle. In this paper, we aim to address these gaps using a mixed-methods approach. Specifically, we conducted interviews with 21 VR practitioners (incl. 3D modelers, developers, technical directors, and product managers), and surveyed 202 VR practitioner respondents from VR related industries. Our findings outline their insights and challenges they face concerning VR accessibility practices in the software development life cycle. Furthermore, our findings shed light on the challenges faced by practitioners concerning VR accessibility and the reasons why it often goes unconsidered. As far as we know, this is the first comprehensive report about the understanding of accessibility for VR software from the practitioner's perspective. We hope this paper will help VR professionals to better understand the issues and challenges in VR accessibility, and the potential solutions.