An Equitable Experience? How HCI Research Conceptualizes Accessibility of Virtual Reality in the Context of Disability

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Gerling, Kathrin, Meiners, Anna-Lena, Schumm, Louisa, Rixen, Jan, Wolf, Marvin, Yildiz, Zeynep, Alexandrovsky, Dmitry, Opp, Merlin
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2024
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author Gerling, Kathrin
Meiners, Anna-Lena
Schumm, Louisa
Rixen, Jan
Wolf, Marvin
Yildiz, Zeynep
Alexandrovsky, Dmitry
Opp, Merlin
author_facet Gerling, Kathrin
Meiners, Anna-Lena
Schumm, Louisa
Rixen, Jan
Wolf, Marvin
Yildiz, Zeynep
Alexandrovsky, Dmitry
Opp, Merlin
contents Creating accessible Virtual Reality (VR) is an ongoing concern in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research community. However, there is little reflection on how accessibility should be conceptualized in the context of an experiential technology. We address this gap in our work: We first explore how accessibility is currently defined, highlighting a growing recognition of the importance of equitable and enriching experiences. We then carry out a literature study (N=28) to examine how accessibility and its relationship with experience is currently conceptualized in VR research. Our results show that existing work seldom defines accessibility in the context of VR, and that barrier-centric research is prevalent. Likewise, we show that experience - e.g., that of presence or immersion - is rarely designed for or evaluated, while participant feedback suggests that it is relevant for disabled users of VR. On this basis, we contribute a working definition of VR accessibility that considers experience a necessary condition for equitable access, and discuss the need for future work to focus on experience in the same way as VR research addressing non-disabled persons does.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_04489
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An Equitable Experience? How HCI Research Conceptualizes Accessibility of Virtual Reality in the Context of Disability
Gerling, Kathrin
Meiners, Anna-Lena
Schumm, Louisa
Rixen, Jan
Wolf, Marvin
Yildiz, Zeynep
Alexandrovsky, Dmitry
Opp, Merlin
Human-Computer Interaction
Creating accessible Virtual Reality (VR) is an ongoing concern in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research community. However, there is little reflection on how accessibility should be conceptualized in the context of an experiential technology. We address this gap in our work: We first explore how accessibility is currently defined, highlighting a growing recognition of the importance of equitable and enriching experiences. We then carry out a literature study (N=28) to examine how accessibility and its relationship with experience is currently conceptualized in VR research. Our results show that existing work seldom defines accessibility in the context of VR, and that barrier-centric research is prevalent. Likewise, we show that experience - e.g., that of presence or immersion - is rarely designed for or evaluated, while participant feedback suggests that it is relevant for disabled users of VR. On this basis, we contribute a working definition of VR accessibility that considers experience a necessary condition for equitable access, and discuss the need for future work to focus on experience in the same way as VR research addressing non-disabled persons does.
title An Equitable Experience? How HCI Research Conceptualizes Accessibility of Virtual Reality in the Context of Disability
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.04489