assistive technology and special education technology work has used the terms like virtual worlds (like the computer games played on computer screen or tv) interchangeably with virtual reality. One of the primary things that separates VR with these virtual world games is that the user views these experiences with a head mounted display which provides a 360 degree ex- perience in the virtual environment. Understanding what is and is not VR is an important first step in advancing more ways to use VR as an assistive technology. In comparison, AR as an assistive technology is probably in a more mature state of development than VR. The 2016 cultural phenomenon of Pokemon Go at least helped to grow the popular understanding of what AR is. VR has not hit that type of widespread adoption yet. AR research in spe- cial education and assistive technology is also more common currently than VR examples. Luckily as a field of AT profession- als there are many ways we can advance VR adoption outside of waiting for the VR tools designed with accessibility at the fore- front and waiting for a larger body of research to provide lessons on the best practices. Capabilities and Limitations of VR So as we explore what VR can bring as an AT resource, un- derstanding how it is used is an important consideration of its capabilities and limitations. VR like any potential tool used as an assistive technology is not universally going to be an ideal tool for all individuals. This will improve as more developers design for accessibility from the start but many current VR offerings are limited in their accessibility. There are some important efforts to improve accessibility in VR. For example, the University of Mel- bourne provides a great resource very detailed examination of VR accessibility challenges and opportunities across many dif- ferent types of disability needs (https://unimelb.edu.au/accessi- bility/guides/vr-old). The best way to learn about VR capabilities and limitations is to start trying it out. Once you try it you immediately appreciate that VR is a very visually focused medium. While head mounted displays and VR experiences also include sounds and sometimes haptic feed- back from the controllers, being able to see is still a very central assumption being made by most developers. So VR in its cur- rent form is not likely to be an ideal resource for individuals with vision impairments. Even users with glasses may find using VR head mounted displays a challenge to use comfortably. Another limitation is that VR experiences such as games, videos, and educational simulations each vary by their design features for using and navigating the experiences. Just as there are millions of mobile apps there are currently thousands of VR games and experiences which can all vary in terms of accessibil- ity. Some VR experiences are very text heavy in their instructions and interfaces which could be a barrier for users who need assis- tance in reading. Common screen reading tools and accessibility features generally will not work in these 360 degree VR environ- ments. Some provide on screen text instructions but no options
for audio prompts. VR by its nature is generally a stationary activity. When we teach people about AR and VR one of our favorite examples is that you can’t cross the street in VR. While using AR apps (i.e. Pokemon Go, AR Navigation apps) most of us are able to safe- ly move around our communities and find what we are looking for in the physical environment around us. VR’s head mounted displays showing completely virtual environments make physi- cally moving any distance potentially dangerous. That does not mean users can’t stand or even in some cases move around a small area in what is generally called room scale VR. But even in most room scale VR experience a participant uses a fairly small area of no more than 10 by 10 feet. A great example of this is Google Tilt Brush which is a creative drawing and painting app that uses one controller as the “brush” and one controller as an interactive palette of colors and tools. Because VR is primarily a stationary activity that also means that for individuals with mobility challenges, for example using a wheelchair, it can still be very accessible. Some VR systems games require one hand held controller while more advanced ones use two controllers. A user with more limited mobility, for example a patient in a bed, would be better serviced by a system with one controller to se- lect and interact in VR. For example, the Oculus Go uses a single controller and the games and experiences in this system tend to require less movement. 360 Degree Video One of the easiest ways to get started using a VR headset is to use it to watch existing 360 degree videos. These videos are tak- en with a special camera that captures video in a 360 circle that can be watched in the VR headset. Unlike a traditional video the user can choose what to pay attention to in these immersive vid- eos. For example in a 360 video swimming under the ocean, one person might focus on a sea turtle swimming by and another might choose to focus on a nearby clown fish. Some popular 360 degree video apps in VR are VEER (Free), National Geographic VR (Free), and Discovery VR (Free). But the largest collection of 360 video is also the world’s largest collection of video Youtube on the Youtube VR app on which you can also upload your own immersive 360 videos. Creating your own 360 degree videos to make immersive video models is one of the most promising assistive technology applications of VR. Video modeling is an evidence based prac- tice with decades of research that we can easily extend to this new platform of VR. The 360 cameras are available for as little as $200 to $500 and very easy to operate. Some use a single lens to create a flat standard video while other cameras use two lens to create 3D video. In our experiments we prefer systems that cre- ate 3D video for the VR video models. We also suggest putting the 360 camera on a stand or selfie stick to help keep the image steady because your video will be what the user experiences and too much turning and shaking can be very disorienting. We
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