2025 XR Access Symposium

July 26-27, 2025 | In-person Event

At the 2025 XR Access Symposium, we’re reviewing the state of the XR field, celebrating a year of progress toward accessibility, and taking steps toward a more inclusive future. We hope you’ll join us!

Accessible XR Demos

These demos showcase work from research teams and companies creating the latest in accessible XR technology, or using XR to make the world more accessible. Questions about a demo?
You can find the demo presenters on Slack or during the afternoon break (1:10-2:40pm) on Day 1 and during the snack break (10:10-11:40am) on Day 2.

Demos Location

See Table down below for Legend.

Thursday, 26th of June

Map of the 2nd floor gallery of the Verizon Executive Education Center, Cornell Tech. Shows location of Demonstrations for Thursday, 26th of June. Right outside the elevator there will be demonstrations D10, D8, D5, and D7 against the wall. To the side walls, there will be demonstrations D3 and D17

Friday, 27th of June

Map of the 2nd floor gallery of the Verizon Executive Education Center, Cornell Tech. Shows location of Demonstrations for Friday, 27th of June. 7 demonstrations in total. Right outside the elevator there will be demonstrations D1, D9, D11, D13, and D15 against the wall. To the side walls, there will be demonstrations D2 and D14.

 

Title Author Description Day Map Identifier
Aesthetic Access for VR: Centering Disabled Artistry Kiira Benz & Alice Sheppard, Double Eye Studios & Kinetic Light Attendees will step into “territory,” an equitably accessible PC-VR experience that pairs narrative haptics (Meta Haptics Studio) with music, audio description, and artistic closed captions, showcasing ground-breaking aesthetic access from pre-production through virtual world-building. Thursday, 26 June 2025
Friday, 27 June 2025
D5 and D14
AI Advancement in Wearable and MR Technology Agustya Mehta & Matthew Bambach, Meta Attendees will explore Meta prototypes highlighting new AI-powered features in wearables and mixed-reality headsets, illustrating how these advances translate to AR and drive accessible XR experiences for all. Friday, 27 June 2025 D15
Customize Accessibility on Apple Vision Pro Rob Dietz, Weill Cornell Medicine This demo invites attendees to experiment with Vision Pro voice commands, eye/hand tracking, Siri shortcuts, and head-mounted capture, showing how built-in tools can be pushed further to accomplish complex tasks with simpler input. Thursday, 26 June 2025 D7
Designing for Local Community Issues Using AR Rapid Prototyping and Ideation Daniel Enriquez, Cornell Tech An AR application lets attendees freely place sketch-ups over real locations, creating high-contrast navigational cues on the fly and enabling low-vision users to augment physical space without permanent modification. Friday, 27 June 2025 D13
Echosense: Virtual Navigation through Spatial Audio & Echolocation Connor Pugh, Jake Araujo-Simon, Rajshri Jain, and Rhythm Raghuwanshi, Cornell Tech Attendees can navigate a virtual scene as Echosense converts sonar-style scans and geometry processing into rich spatial audio, conveying fundamental geometric information directly via sound. Friday, 27 June 2025 D9
EnVisionVR: A Scene Interpretation Tool for Visual Accessibility in Virtual Reality Junlong Chen & Vanja Garaj, University of Cambridge / Brunel Design School Attendees will use voice input with a Vision Language Model and multimodal feedback to interpret VR scenes and locate virtual objects, demonstrating a novel accessibility pipeline for BLV users. Thursday, 26 June 2025 D3
Exploring VR for Emotional Self-Regulation in a Disabled Community Jesús Eduardo Russián, University of the West of Scotland Two side-by-side stations let attendees compare a calming 360° nature video with an interactive VR game, examining how each approach supports emotional self-regulation and accessibility. Friday, 27 June 2025 D11
Hands-on InclusiveVR@Work: Demonstrating Customizable Virtual Workspaces for Accessibility Julia Anken, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Attendees will build individualized VR workspaces with flexible input, multi-monitor layouts, focus modes, and adjustable color, contrast, magnifier, lighting, and ambience, showcasing collaborative virtual environments tailored to each user. Friday, 27 June 2025 D2
Inclusive VR Card Deck Shiyun “Joanne” Tang, New York University In this interactive card game, attendees draw Accessibility Challenge and AI Tools cards to brainstorm inclusive VR strategies, turning complex 3D ideation into approachable 2D solutions while sparking fresh ideas for inclusive design. Friday, 27 June 2025 D1
Lemmings: Tools for Accessible Gestures Justin Berry, Yale University Live Unity scenes show how complex gestures are decomposed into a few tracked features, letting attendees remap actions—like a pinch to a head turn—advancing gesture and motion-powered interaction for accessibility. Thursday, 26 June 2025 D17
MapIO: A Gestural and Conversational Interface for Tactile Maps James M. Coughlan, Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute Attendees point to tactile map features and ask verbal questions; a camera tracks finger location, queries an LLM, and provides audio answers plus real-time step-by-step guidance. Thursday, 26 June 2025 D8
Virtual Reality Interventions for Intersectional Stress Reduction Among Black Women Judite Blanc, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Attendees can experience excerpts from NurtureVR™ and First Resort, sampling mindfulness, relaxation, and blood-pressure-management activities designed to address intersectional stressors and highlight VR’s escapism benefits. Thursday, 26 June 2025 D10

Accessibility and XR – Posters

These research and industry posters showcase studies conducted from research teams and companies creating the latest in accessible XR technology, or using XR to make the world more accessible.
Questions about a poster?
You can find the poster presenters on Slack or during the afternoon break (1:10-2:40pm) on Day 1 and during the snack break (10:10-11:40am) on Day 2.

Posters Location

See Table down below for Legend.

Thursday, 26th of June

Map of the 2nd floor classroom 225 of the Verizon Executive Education Center, Cornell Tech. Shows location of Posters for Thursday, 26th of June. As you enter the classroom, there will be an open space with all 8 posters spread out in a square perimeter: P2, P4, P6, P8, P10, P12, and P14. On The sides near the wall are tables and chairs that will be used for the breakouts. Don't mind these.

Friday, 27th of June

 Map of the 2nd floor classroom 225 of the Verizon Executive Education Center, Cornell Tech. Shows location of Posters for Thursday, 26th of June. As you enter the classroom, there will be an open space with all 7 posters spread out in a square perimeter: P1, P3, P5, P7, P9, P15, and P11. On The sides near the wall are tables and chairs that will be used for the breakouts. Don't mind these.
Title Author Description Day Map Identifier
Academic research about VR in education: before and after COVID-19 Felix Navas Raleigh, University of Puerto Rico A systematic content analysis tracks how VR use in education shifted from mainly STEM and medical training pre-COVID to socio-emotional learning and virtual field trips post-COVID. The poster includes a QR-code-linked VR scene that immerses attendees in these findings. Thursday, 26 June 2025 P12
Accessibility and Neurodiversity in XR Logan Ashbaugh, California State University San Bernardino Building on a disability-design literature review, this poster shares collaboratively refined guidelines for creating XR applications that address the needs of neurodivergent users. Friday, 27 June 2025 P7
Assembly and Expression in XR: Transposing Human Rights Across Realities Emmie Hine, Yale Digital Ethics Center Through case studies of virtual protests, art, and public discourse, the poster proposes a rights-protection framework that weighs embodiment levels and public-function doctrine to help platforms uphold assembly and expression for marginalized groups in XR. Thursday, 26 June 2025 P2
Designing AI-Avatars to support young adults in emotion and positive self-talk Ann-Kareen Gedeus, Cornell University & Cornell Tech Participatory design sessions with therapists and young adults refine verbal and non-verbal AI-avatar behaviors, laying groundwork for a mobile app that pairs avatars with calming XR scenes to encourage positive self-talk. Friday, 27 June 2025 P9
Empowering Inclusive Care: An Immersive VR Training Program for Neurodiverse Patient Interactions Lynn Xu, NYU Langone Health Details a Meta Quest 3 prototype that places clinicians inside sensory-rich exam scenarios co-designed with autistic and ADHD self-advocates. Motion-tracking and haptic cues highlight body language, while pre- and post-surveys chart gains in empathy, bias reduction, and communication confidence. Thursday, 26 June 2025 P10
Enhancing Learning Platforms for Individuals with ADHD in XR Education Veronica Pimenova, Carnegie Mellon University Building on a controlled study where segmented videos lowered errors and hesitations, this poster shows how “pause-and-chunk” pacing, micro-goals, and lightweight progress cues can be embedded in XR lessons to tame cognitive load for ADHD learners. Friday, 27 June 2025 P3
Exploring Reading in Augmented Reality for People with Dementia Rupsha Mutsuddi, York University Mixed-reality prototypes add contextual audio prompts and enlarged, glance-able text to everyday reading. This poster shows how field sessions with adults in early-stage dementia surface design rules for cognitively accessible MR, such as limited menus, gentle animations, and easy exits. Friday, 27 June 2025 P11
Exploring Virtual Reality to Mitigate Visual Split in Computer Science Education for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Classrooms Shuxu Huffman, Gallaudet University The poster compares Transparent, Parallel, and Corner signer placements in a 15-minute ASL “binary search” lecture. Results show VR reduces attention-split and eye-strain, pointing toward signer-aware layouts for inclusive STEM instruction. Friday, 27 June 2025 P5
Good Intentions, Real Barriers: Investigating Accessibility in XR Workflows Mrunmai Abhyankar, XR Access Interviews with XR devs and testers reveal that existing guidelines are “too scattered.” The poster presents a prototype information-architecture that groups checkpoints by build phase and impairment domain, making best practices more searchable and actionable. Thursday, 26 June 2025 P6
Inclusive Immersion: Accessible AR and VR for High School Education in Controlled Environment Agriculture Maryam Bigonah, Auburn University A web-based greenhouse simulator merges stochastic crop models with Universal Design for Learning. The poster demos haptic-ready Accessible VR and screen-reader-friendly AR views that let all students practice sustainable farming decisions. Friday, 27 June 2025 P1
INDYvr: Towards an Ergonomics-based Framework for Inclusive and Dynamic Personalizations of Virtual Reality Environments Raquel T. Cabrera-Araya, Texas A&M University Six linked modules capture reachability and walkability metrics, then reposition objects and adjust architecture in real time for diverse physical abilities. The poster visualizes how parametric rules reposition items in real time for shorter, wheelchair, or limited-reach users. Thursday, 26 June 2025 P8
Resilient Realities: A Deep Dive into the VR Journeys of People with Disabilities Divya Laxman Bhadargade & Sanchay Murugan, Iowa State University This poster explores the motivations and goals of individuals with physical and cognitive conditions when using immersive technologies. Diary studies and contextual interviews document in-context XR use and surface barriers that shape “adapt and ignore” coping tactics, offering concrete recommendations for future inclusive XR development. Friday, 27 June 2025 P15
Virtual Reality based Sensory Motor Rehabilitation Process Dinesh Bhathad The poster introduces a VR rehabilitation model in which stroke survivors trace a therapist’s finger movements and stack virtual boxes. Mobility changes are quantified against baseline values, giving patients convenient at-home therapy and data-driven motivation to keep exercising. Thursday, 26 June 2025 P4
XR-Enabled Clinics: Advancing Healthcare Access for Rural Communities Through Telehealth & Rehabilitation Emily Lin & Sarah Canlas, University of Michigan This poster describes a Community Health Hub pilot in rural Michigan that layers XR, telehealth, digital-literacy workshops, and participatory design to create a scalable model for rural digital health equity in broadband-enabled regions. Thursday, 26 June 2025 P14