An Online Survey Assessing the Accessibility Barriers Encountered by Users of Virtual and Augmented Reality

Abstract

The social model of disability [14. T. Shakespeare. The Social Model of Disability. The Disability Studies Reader, 2:197–204, 2006.] stresses the role the physical environment plays in restricting one's access and capabilities. Immersive content can remove the barriers present in the physical world, as highlighted by one participant of our survey, “As my disability limits my mobility and changes the way and distance I can travel, using immersive content is a God send. And helps broaden my restricted world.” By removing these barriers, users with a disability have access to new experiences and opportunities. An awareness among designers of the basic principles of accessibility for immersive content is therefore paramount in avoiding the needless erection of new access barriers within the virtual environment.

The main aim of this paper is to report on a survey that examined the experience and expectations of users with disabilities regarding virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). The online survey was completed by 101 individuals and specifically targeted users with one or more types of access needs, impairments, disabilities and/or long-term health conditions.