The growing accessibility of virtual reality (VR) technology presents new possibilities for individuals with physical disabilities to engage in adaptive sports training. This paper reports on a qualitative study exploring the perceptions, experiences, and feedback of athletes with physical disabilities after interacting with bespoke VR games for two adaptive sports, namely Volt Hockey and Power Soccer. Results indicated that participants view VR as a valuable tool for overcoming physical and logistical barriers to practice, enhancing skill development, and promoting sustained engagement with their sport. At the same time, participants identified key challenges related to equipment accessibility, physical comfort, input responsiveness, and the need for multiplayer functionality. This study highlights the potential of bespoke VR games to complement traditional adaptive sports training and underscores the importance of user-centered design practices in designing and developing accessible and meaningful VR experiences for people with disabilities. Our findings offer practical insights for developers, designers, and researchers aiming to support equal access to adaptive sports training through VR technology.

In this paper, we investigated the effects of hand-tracking input on mid-air text entry performance in virtual reality as a function of the key representations used in the virtual keyboard, i.e., flat 2D keys vs. protruded 3D keys. This led to a comparison among four conditions: controller input using 2D keys, controller input using 3D keys, hand-tracking input using 2D keys, hand-tracking input using 3D keys. Results from our user study (n = 28) revealed that controller input (15.3 WPM) outperformed hand-tracking input (13.8 WPM) in terms of text entry rates and that protruded 3D keys (15.6 WPM) led to faster text entry performance than did flat 2D keys (13.4 WPM). While the four conditions did not differ in error rates, flat 2D keys led to a greater number of character corrections. In addition, results showed that compared to flat 2D keys, protruded 3D keys lowered the perceived mental workload of the text entry task. These results indicate that despite the technological advances in hand-tracking technology, controller input is still more performant than hand-tracking input for VR text entry tasks and that protruded 3D keys afford faster text entry and better user experience than do flat 2D keys. That said, hand-tracking input can still be used for mid-air text entry without extreme performance losses.

Virtual reality (VR) roleplaying games designed to promote perspective taking typically involve players assuming the perspective of others from different backgrounds and experiencing a simulated scenario from their everyday life, with the goal of facilitating and enhancing empathy and social acceptance toward marginalized groups.One key question pertains to the extent to which players' perspective during VR roleplaying games affects their social acceptance of the other.To address this question, we examined the effect of first-person vs. third-person perspective on presence, co-presence, and social acceptance during a VR roleplaying game.Two groups of participants played the same VR roleplaying game from either a first-person perspective or a third-person perspective.Results showed that compared to third-person perspective, firstperson perspective led to greater co-presence during the game and engendered higher levels of social acceptance toward the character whose role participants played.These results highlight the importance of using first-person perspective in VR roleplaying games focusing on facilitating and enhancing social acceptance. CCS Concepts• Human

In this study, we explored the effect of seeing one’s avatar in a virtual mirror during a virtual reality (VR) perspective taking experience. Participants were divided into two groups, with one experiencing the VR environment with the presence of a mirror showcasing their avatar and the other without. Results revealed that the sense of presence was comparable across both groups. However, a notable difference emerged in terms of empathy; participants who viewed their avatars in the mirror exhibited reduced empathic responses. These findings illuminate the nuanced dynamics of self-representation in virtual environments, suggesting that inducing self-awareness through a virtual mirror in VR might have unintended emotional consequences.