Events

August 28th, 2023

As virtual reality (VR) technology becomes more pervasive, it continues to find multiple new uses
beyond research laboratories. One of them is distance adult education—the potential of VR to
provide valuable education experiences is massive, despite the current barriers to its widespread
application. Nevertheless, recent trends demonstrate clearly that VR is on the rise in education
settings, and VR-only courses are becoming more popular across the globe. This trend will continue
as more affordable VR solutions are released commercially, increasing the number of education
institutions that benefit from the technology. No accessibility guidelines exist at present that are
created specifically for the implementation of specific accessibility features for VR hardware and
software in distance education. The purpose of this workshop is to address this niche and formulate
a set of practical guidelines and its implementations for the use of VR in distance adult education to
make it accessible to a wider range of people.

To make it happen we would like to invite researchers and practitioners who represent the fields of
distance education, virtual reality, and accessibility, as well as those with combined experience in
these areas. We encourage people that are interested in new forms of distance education to join our
debate on the opportunities and challenges of the application of VR in their fields—even if they lack
prior experience with the technology.

Continue Reading Workshop on VR Accessibility in Distance Adult Education

November 29th, 2022

Continue Reading Inclusive Immersion: Inclusive Design of Immersive Content

September 22, 2022

As we continue to explore bringing accessibility to XR technology, we identified the need to examine audio cues in immersive environments. XRA and XR Access partnered to host a 90-minute session comprised of industry experts and the public to identify if lessons learned in the application of audio cues in 2D games can be applied to immersive experiences to benefit the blind and low vision communities. Nearly 70 people registered for the event, and we were joined by three featured speakers to probe into the topic. A recording of the session can be viewed here. Notes from the session, including helpful resources, relevant links, discussion topics, and transcripts, can all be found here.Continue Reading Community Discussion on Audio Cues in Virtual Environments

August 9, 2022

Completed as part of the MIT 2022 Reality Hack, “Inclusive User Testing in VR” is an accessible in-game tool that allows general audiences to give feedback on VR projects. Users can use a variety of input methods, including voice-to-text and VR keyboards, and also includes screen reader support for low-vision individuals. This functionality allows researchers, developers, and designers to receive immediate, asynchronous feedback on their VR projects via a web-based dashboard. In this talk, we will cover not only the value that this tool brings to a diverse number of XR creators, but how this hackathon project went from an initial concept to a usable tool over the course of many development iterations and direct involvement from the accessibility community. Register for the talk here.Continue Reading Inclusive User Testing in VR @ MIT Reality Hack

May 25, 2022

XR and the metaverse introduces a whole new realm for users to explore; It brings new barriers and opportunities.

The BBC has just published the XR barrier research project to identify some of the most common barriers. In this talk Jamie & Lion share their experiences leading the project and share insights in building XR experiences for audiences anew.

Continue Reading Exploring Barriers in XR | Jamie Knight + Lion