Exclusion Rates among Disabled and Older Users of Virtual and Augmented Reality

Abstract

This paper examines the levels of exclusion encountered by disabled and older users of consumer-level VR and AR technology and identifies methods formed by people with diverse access needs to circumvent encountered barriers to use. First, we estimate exclusion rates for a selection of nine immersive experiences of VR and AR, computed using population statistics data for the United Kingdom (UK). We then present an empirical lab-based study evaluating the usability of the same VR and AR experiences. The study involved 60 UK-based participants with varying access needs and the study results were used to calculate the empirical exclusion rates. Both the estimated and empirical exclusion rates display high levels of exclusion, which for the more complex experiences in the study reached 100 %. However, multiple participants overcame usability barriers and completed experiences through provided assistance and self-initiated adaptations, suggesting that future VR and AR can become more inclusive if designed to counter these barriers.