Prior research has highlighted numerous accessibility barriers within virtual reality software, with guidelines emerging to address the requirements of diverse audiences. However, an empirical understanding of industry practitioner implementation of accessible guidelines within mainstream commercial applications is currently lacking. This review addresses this gap by categorising all accessibility features presented at a software-level in 330 of the most used virtual reality applications released between 2016 to 2023 on the Steam, Meta, Oculus, Viveport, and SideQuest platforms. Results suggest a growing lack of interaction customisation, with the number of applications allowing for alternative inputs and physical posture flexibility decreasing. Meanwhile, display output settings, such as text font resizing and colourblind alterations, are almost completely absent. Our findings highlight the evolution in the implementation of accessible features in virtual reality software, contributing to a representative overview of practitioner decisions, and acting as a catalyst towards the establishment of industry-wide guidelines.

Exploration of virtual reality locomotion has a rich history, including in the creation of taxonomies categorising individual techniques. However, most existing research collects data from academic sources only, with both historic industry practitioner exploration and a state-of-the-art understanding of locomotion in commercial applications comparatively underexplored. This systematic software-level review of the complete locomotion options in 330 of the most used virtual reality applications released between 2016 and 2023 on the Steam, Meta, Oculus, Viveport, and SideQuest platforms highlights the trends and gaps that exist between industry and academic exploration. Results suggest a decline in the usage of teleportation, with the prevalence of titles containing at least one teleportation technique decreasing from 48% of those released in 2016 to 18% in 2023. Arm-tracked grabbing locomotion techniques such as climbing meanwhile are being increasingly adopted by practitioners, from almost unused in 3% of applications released in 2016 to over 30% in each year between 2020 and 2023. Additionally, although the tracking capabilities afforded by consumer-level head-mounted display hardware has resulted in a high exploration of room-scale tracking, the large academic focus on walking-based locomotion appears to not be shared by practitioners, where room-scale tracking instead is most often paired with conventional controller joystick sliding locomotion. Finally, temporal analysis results showing the growing number of locomotion techniques offered in an average application signifies the need for further accessibility-related locomotion research, particularly in areas beyond visual sickness mitigation. Our findings highlight the continuing evolution of locomotion in commercial virtual reality applications, with industry practitioner locomotion technique adoption rates displaying the divergent interests between industry and academia, in turn adding rigour to future locomotion selections across both domains.

Accessibility barriers associated with Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) for users who are Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI) are well established. However, there has been a lack of research that examines how musical hardware devices are used as assistive tools and their role in improving DAW workflows. Nineteen participants from the BVI community were interviewed to detail their workflows, highlighting methods, benefits, and challenges of integrating musical hardware devices within their DAW. Results found that sixteen participants are using at least one hardware device (e.g., Komplete Kontrol) in their workflows as an accessibility tool for DAW features (e.g., FX parameters). Participants’ choice of hardware devices was influenced by multiple factors, such as technical specification, accessibility features, usability, and cost. Finally, we highlight suggestions for future research and development areas with a particular emphasis on proposing ways of implementing vibrotactile feedback that will enhance DAWs’ accessibility.

Augmented and virtual reality experiences present significant barriers for disabled people, making it challenging to fully engage with immersive platforms. Whilst researchers have started to explore potential solutions addressing these accessibility issues, we currently lack a comprehensive understanding of research areas requiring further investigation to support the development of inclusive AR/VR systems. To address current gaps in knowledge, we led a series of multidisciplinary sandpits with relevant stakeholders (i.e., academic researchers, industry specialists, people with lived experience of disability, assistive technologists, and representatives from disability organisations, charities, and special needs educational institutions) to collaboratively explore research challenges, opportunities, and solutions. Based on insights shared by participants, we present a research agenda identifying key areas where further work is required in relation to specific forms of disability (i.e., across the spectrum of physical, visual, cognitive, and hearing impairments), including wider considerations associated with the development of more accessible immersive platforms.

Conventionally, the accessibility research community centers most of its efforts on designing assistive technologies and systems related to single categories of impairments. Although this approach has contributed to valuable progress and advancements in the field, there is a growing consensus among accessibility researchers that focusing on designing technologies for single impairments oversimplifies disability since this approach may fail to adequately address the real-world experiences of a significant population of users with complex needs. Despite challenges related to conducting research with users living with multiple, profound, or complex disabilities, it is essential in terms of future work that the accessibility research community adopts a more inclusive approach where users with lived experience of multiple disabilities are directly informing and shaping the design of assistive systems and accessible technologies. Therefore, we propose the 2nd International Workshop on Accessibility Research and Users with Multiple Disabilities or Complex Needs. The workshop will act as a forum for participants to share their perspectives related to challenges and opportunities in designing accessible systems that consider the multidimensional needs of users living with multiple disabilities. This workshop intends to challenge current paradigms in the accessibility field, share latest work and foster future collaborations.

This paper focuses on the design, development and preliminary evaluation of cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) system that utilises wearable sensors to remotely monitor the physiological patterns of young person with Emotional Behavioral Disorder (EBD). We report on an exploratory study with caregivers to understand the challenges exhibited by young people with EBD. This informed the design of cloud-based IoT system that retrieves real-time physiological parameters such as Heart Rate, Body Temperature through non-invasive wearable sensors, which enables caregivers to monitor the activity of young person remotely and provide enhanced support based on the collected parameters. To validate system's feasibility, an initial pilot study within a healthcare environment involving children with EBD was conducted. The study confirms the system's viability and identifies important areas for future improvements. By utilizing IoT technology, our work aims to enhance the healthcare sector's ability to support individuals with EBD and improve their overall well-being.

The recent proliferation of immersive technology has led to the rapid adoption of consumer-ready hardware for Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). While this increase has resulted in a variety of platforms that can offer a richer interactive experience, the advances in technology bring more variability in display types, interaction sensors and use cases. This provides a spectrum of device-specific interaction possibilities, with each offering a tailor-made solution for delivering immersive experiences to users, but often with an inherent lack of standardisation across devices and applications. To address this, a systematic review and an evaluation of explicit, task-based interaction methods in immersive environments are presented in this paper. A corpus of papers published between 2013 and 2020 is reviewed to thoroughly explore state-of-the-art user studies, which investigate input methods and their implementation for immersive interaction tasks (pointing, selection, translation, rotation, scale, viewport, menu-based and abstract). Focus is given to how input methods have been applied within the spectrum of immersive technology (AR, VR, XR). This is achieved by categorising findings based on display type, input method, study type, use case and task. Results illustrate key trends surrounding the benefits and limitations of each interaction technique and highlight the gaps in current research. The review provides a foundation for understanding the current and future directions for interaction studies in immersive environments, which, at this pivotal point in XR technology adoption, provides routes forward for achieving more valuable, intuitive and natural interactive experiences.

Voice input holds significant potential to support people with physical impairments in producing creative visual design outputs, although it is unclear whether well-established interaction methods used for manipulating graphical assets within mainstream creative applications (typically operated via a mouse, keyboard, or touch input) also present benefits for speech interaction. We present three new voice controlled approaches utilizing interface snapping techniques for manipulating a graphical object's dimensions: NoSnap, UserSnap, and AutoSnap. A user evaluation with people who have physical impairments (N=25) found that each method enabled participants to successfully control a graphical object's size across a series of design tasks, although the automated snapping approach utilized within AutoSnap was found to be more efficient, accurate, and usable. Subjective feedback from participants also highlighted a strong preference for AutoSnap over the other techniques in terms of efficiency and ease of use.

Historically, the accessibility community has focused on designing assistive technologies and systems related to single categories of impairments. While this approach is justifiable and contributes to the advancement of the field, many researchers argue that designing technologies for one impairment at a time contributes to an oversimplification of disability and does not reflect real-world experiences of a significant number of users who live with multiple impairments. How can the accessibility field leverage theories and concepts from other disciplines (e.g. disability studies, medical humanities, social work, engineering, education) to support more appropriate and inclusive technologies for users with complex needs? How can future assistive technologies take into consideration a diverse combination of sensory, cognitive, and physical characteristics? In this workshop, we invite researchers and practitioners from different disciplines to share their perspectives related to challenges and opportunities in designing accessible systems that consider the multidimensional and often complex needs of users living with multiple impairments.

Navigation of source code typically requires extensive use of a traditional mouse and keyboard which can present significant barriers for developers with physical impairments. We present research exploring how commonly used code navigation approaches (e.g. locating references to user-defined identifiers, jumping to function definitions, conducting a search for specific syntax, etc.) can be optimized for multimodal voice interaction. An exploratory study was initially conducted with five developers who have physical impairments to elicit insights around their experiences in navigating code within existing voice-controlled development environments. Findings from this study informed the design of a code editor integrating different navigation features tailored for multimodal speech input. A user evaluation with 14 developers with physical impairments was conducted with results demonstrating that all participants were able to successfully complete a series of standard navigation tasks. Participants also highlighted that the code navigation techniques were intuitive to use and provided a high-level of usability.

People with physical impairments can experience challenges when using traditional input devices such as a mouse and keyboard for creative visual design work. Speech interaction is an alternative input method that can facilitate a more inclusive approach for supporting creative work. However, there has been a lack of work to date investigating how to position and move creative assets (e.g. images) around a digital workspace via speech interaction techniques. We present three multimodal speech interaction approaches to support the positioning of graphical objects around a design canvas via speech commands: Speed-based Control, Location Guides, and Positional Guides. A user evaluation with non-disabled participants (N=30) found that the Location Guides approach was significantly more efficient, accurate, and usable for the positioning of images when compared with the other methods. A follow-up study with physically impaired users (N=6) demonstrated they were able to effectively position images around a design canvas using the Location Guides technique with participants also rating this approach as exhibiting a high level of usability.

Natural and intuitive interaction such as freehand grasping of virtual objects is still a significant challenge in VR due to the dexterous versatility of the human grasping actions. Currently, the design considerations for creating freehand grasping interactions in VR are drawn from the body of historical knowledge presented for real object grasping. While this may be suitable for some applications, recent work has shown that users grasp virtual objects differently than they grasp real objects, presenting an absence of knowledge on how users intuitively grasp virtual objects. To begin to address this, we present an elicitation study where participants (N =39) grasped 16 virtual objects categorised by shape in a mixed docking task exploring placement and rotation. We report on a Wizard of OZ methodology, extract Grasp Type and Grasp Dimension and present grasping patterns in VR. Our results are of value to be taken forward into a framework of recommendations for grasping interactions, as well as parameterizing grasp types for developing intuitive grasp models and thus begin to bridge the gap in understanding natural grasping patters for VR object interactions.

Object categorisation methods have been historically used in literature for understanding and collecting real objects together into meaningful groups and can be used to define human interaction patterns (i. e grasping). When investigating grasping patterns for Virtual Reality (VR), researchers used Zingg’s methodology which categorises objects based on shape and form. However, this methodology is limited and does not take into consideration other object attributes that might influence grasping interaction in VR. To address this, our work presents a study into three categorisation methods for virtual objects. We employ Zingg’s object categorisation as a benchmark against existing real and virtual object interaction work and introduce two new categorisation methods that focus on virtual object equilibrium and virtual object component parts. We evaluate these categorisation methods using a dataset of 1872 grasps from a VR docking task on 16 virtual representations of real objects and report findings on grasp patterns. We report on findings for each virtual object categorisation method showing differences in terms of grasp classes, grasp type and aperture. We conclude by detailing recommendations and future ideas on how these categorisation methods can be taken forward to inform a richer understanding of grasping in VR.

People with physical impairments who are unable to use traditional input devices (i.e. mouse and keyboard) are often excluded from technical professions (e.g. web development). Alternative input methods such as eye gaze tracking and speech recognition have become more readily available in recent years with both being explored independently to support people with physical impairments in coding activities. This paper describes a novel multimodal application ("Voiceye") that combines voice input, gaze interaction, and mechanical switches as an alternative approach for writing code. The system was evaluated with non-disabled participants who have coding experience (N=29) to assess the feasibility of the application in writing HTML and CSS code. Results found that Voiceye was perceived positively and enabled successful completion of coding tasks. A follow-up study with disabled participants (N=5) demonstrated that this method of multimodal interaction can support people with physical impairments in writing and editing code.

Influence of interaction fidelity and rendering quality on perceived user experience have been largely explored in Virtual Reality (VR). However, differences in interaction choices triggered by these rendering cues have not yet been explored. We present a study analysing the effect of thermal visual cues and contextual information on 50 participants' approach to grasp and move a virtual mug. This study comprises 3 different temperature cues (baseline empty, hot and cold) and 4 contextual representations; all embedded in a VR scenario. We evaluate 2 different hand representations (abstract and human) to assess grasp metrics. Results show temperature cues influenced grasp location, with the mug handle being predominantly grasped with a smaller grasp aperture for the hot condition, while the body and top were preferred for baseline and cold conditions.

We present a new application ("Sakura") that enables people with physical impairments to produce creative visual design work using a multimodal gaze approach. The system integrates multiple features tailored for gaze interaction including the selection of design artefacts via a novel grid approach, control methods for manipulating canvas objects, creative typography, a new color selection approach, and a customizable guide technique facilitating the alignment of design elements. A user evaluation (N=24) found that non-disabled users were able to utilize the application to complete common design activities and that they rated the system positively in terms of usability. A follow-up study with physically impaired participants (N=6) demonstrated they were able to control the system when working towards a website design, rating the application as having a good level of usability. Our research highlights new directions in making creative activities more accessible for people with physical impairments.

This paper presents an evaluation of ultrasound mid-air haptics as a supplementary feedback cue for grasping and lifting virtual objects in Virtual Reality (VR). We present a user study with 27 participants and evaluate 6 different object sizes ranging from 40 mm to 100 mm. We compare three supplementary feedback cues in VR; mid-air haptics, visual feedback (glow effect) and no supplementary feedback. We report on precision metrics (time to completion, grasp aperture and grasp accuracy) and interaction metrics (post-test questionnaire, observations and feedback) to understand general trends and preferences. The results showed an overall preference for visual cues for bigger objects () while ultrasound mid-air haptics were preferred for small virtual targets ().

The impact of simulated embodied agent emotion has been explored in short-term studies, but no work to date has examined its impact in longer interactions that involve multiple interactions with agents. We present an embodied agent (Rachael) that simulates a health professional and attempts to help people improve their fruit and vegetable consumption. Emotional and unemotional versions of the agent were developed to examine how user perceptions of the agent changed over an intervention period of 49 days and in turn how this influenced fruit and vegetable consumption. Results found that whilst participants consumed more daily portions of fruit and vegetables over the intervention period and reduced their consumption gains post-intervention, there was no significant difference in consumption gains over time between those who interacted with the emotional or unemotional agents. Qualitative feedback, however, highlighted a strong preference for the emotional agent. A novelty effect was also observed where the agents were perceived more positively initially and less so over time.

Wheelchair users can find accessing digital content on large multi-touch tables particularly difficult and frustrating due to their limited reach. We present work in progress that is exploring the potential of enhancing touch table accessibility through the use of mid-air gesturing technology. An overview of an experimental prototype is provided along with the key findings from an evaluation conducted with fifteen wheelchair users at a public library and heritage centre.

We present work-in-progress that is exploring the potential for visual artists with physical impairments to use new non-intrusive mid-air gesturing sensors to enhance and extend their practice. We highlight the key results from an initial informal user evaluation with two disabled and two non-disabled visual artists examining use of the Leap Motion sensor as an artistic tool. Future work will explore how related technologies can be better utilized to support disabled artists in their practice.

This paper investigates how users respond to emotional expressions displayed by an embodied agent. In a between-subjects experiment (N = 50) an emotionally expressive agent (simulating the role of a nutritional coach) was perceived as significantly more likeable and caring than an unemotional version. Feedback from participants also revealed detailed insights into their perceptions of the agents and highlighted a strong preference for the emotionally expressive version. Design implications for embodied agents are discussed and future research areas identified.

We describe work in progress toward a new approach for multimedia annotation in which the system and user work synergistically together. This work in progress is particularly focused on enabling journalists to efficiently annotate articles for submission to news agencies. Initial work on gathering user requirements is detailed along with several interesting findings that resulted from this process: capturing mood and emotion is needed as well as descriptive content. Important areas for future research are also highlighted and discussed.

Embodied agents are often designed with the ability to simulate human emotion. This paper investigates the psychological impact of simulated emotional expressions on computer users with a particular emphasis on how mismatched facial and audio expressions are perceived (e.g. a happy face with a concerned voice). In a within-subjects repeated measures experiment (N = 68), mismatched animations were perceived as more engaging, warm, concerned and happy when a happy or warm face was in the animation (as opposed to a neutral or concerned face) and when a happy or warm voice was in the animation (as opposed to a neutral or concerned voice). The results appear to follow cognitive dissonance theory as subjects attempted to make mismatched expressions consistent on both the visual and audio dimensions of animations, resulting in confused perceptions of the emotional expressions. Design implications for affective embodied agents are discussed and future research areas identified.

This paper presents an adaptive physical environment that allows children with severe autism to successfully interact with multimodal stimuli, giving them a sense of control of the interaction and, hence, providing them with a sense of agency. This has been an extremely important effort for two main reasons: 1) This user group cannot be typified, hence making the design of an interactive system to fit all the spectrum of individuals a very complex task; 2) each individual PAS (Person on the Autistic Spectrum) user must be able to develop himself within the environment according to his own capacities and potentiality. Qualitative evaluation by psychologists shows very good results and sketches an encouraging future for research on these environments.