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.

The rise of virtual reality (VR) technology has opened up new opportunities for individuals with mobility impairments to participate in adaptive sports training.This paper reports on a survey study of individuals with mobility impairments to explore their expectations and needs when designing and developing VR games for adaptive sports training.Results indicate that participants are highly motivated to engage in VR adaptive sports training due to its promising potential and have specific requirements for game design and development, including ease of use, realistic gameplay, and accessible controls.This study highlights the transformative potential of VR technology in providing equal opportunities for individuals with mobility impairments to participate in adaptive sports training and promotes the development of inclusive VR games for disable users.Our findings have actionable implications for game designers, developers, and researchers, as they underscore the importance of accessibility and inclusiveness in the design and development of VR games for adaptive sports training.

When digital content is tested for photosensitive safety and is found to contain seizure-inducing strobes or flashing lights, warnings about photosensitive risk are usually shown to the user prior to viewing the content. These photosensitivity warnings are an important accessibility feature for people with photosensitive epilepsy, allowing them to avoid interacting with content that may trigger seizures. However, little is known about how these warnings should be structured to maximize effectiveness in helping with people PSE navigate visual media safely. The design space for photosensitivity warnings is vast and includes questions such as what details to include about strobing light sequences or the content itself, where to place warnings within an interface, and what methods to use to extract information about the strobing light sequences (e.g., crowdsourced or automated methods). In this work, we contribute a thematic analysis of crowdsourced warnings drawn from the DoesTheDogDie online forum and an interview study with five people who have been diagnosed with photosensitive epilepsy about design considerations for photosensitivity warnings on digital platforms. To guide our interviews, we assembled examples of both crowdsourced and automated warnings about seizure-inducing content in films. Automated warnings were presented in the form of a high fidelity sketch demonstrating what an automated system for photosensitivity warnings might look like when deployed by a film streaming platform. We contribute design suggestions for the structure, content, and data sourcing of photosensitivity warnings for visual media based on the findings of our interviews. The results of this work will enable more effective and informative photosensitivity warnings across all forms of digital visual media.

Virtual reality (VR) systems have grown in popularity as an immersive modality for daily activities such as gaming, socializing, and working. However, this technology is not always accessible for people with photosensitive epilepsy (PSE) who may experience seizures or other adverse symptoms when exposed to certain light stimuli (e.g., flashes or strobes). How can VR be made more inclusive and safer for people with PSE? In this paper, we report on a series of semi-structured interviews about current perceptions of accessibility in VR among people with PSE. We identify 12 barriers to accessibility that fall into four categories: physical VR equipment, VR interfaces and content, specific VR applications, and individual differences in sensitivity. Our findings allow researchers and practitioners to better understand the meaning of photosensitive accessibility in the context of VR, and provide a step towards enabling people with PSE to enjoy the benefits offered by immersive 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

Immersive analytics has emerged as a promising research area, leveraging advances in immersive display technologies and techniques, such as virtual and augmented reality, to facilitate data exploration and decision-making. This paper presents a systematic literature review of 73 studies published between 2013-2022 on immersive analytics systems and visualizations, aiming to identify and categorize the primary dimensions influencing their design. We identified five key dimensions: Academic Theory and Contribution, Immersive Technology, Data, Spatial Presentation, and Visual Presentation. Academic Theory and Contribution assess the motivations behind the works and their theoretical frameworks. Immersive Technology examines the display and input modalities, while Data dimension focuses on dataset types and generation. Spatial Presentation discusses the environment, space, embodiment, and collaboration aspects in IA, and Visual Presentation explores the visual elements, facet and position, and manipulation of views. By examining each dimension individually and cross-referencing them, this review uncovers trends and relationships that help inform the design of immersive systems visualizations. This analysis provides valuable insights for researchers and practitioners, offering guidance in designing future immersive analytics systems and shaping the trajectory of this rapidly evolving field.

Technical interviews, a cornerstone of the hiring process for computer science (CS) jobs, often prove to be particularly stressful for individuals from underrepresented backgrounds in CS circles, including women and people of color. The heightened stress and pressure can negatively affect these individuals’ sense of belonging in CS. This paper introduces Virtual AIVantage, an innovative tool designed to address this issue by leveraging virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize technical interview preparation for underrepresented individuals in CS. Virtual AIVantage provides a bespoke, VR-based training experience, simulating realistic interview scenarios with the aid of AI-powered conversational agents. By using the capabilities of OpenAI’s GPT-4, the tool offers real-time feedback, guidance, and example responses, fostering a comprehensive interview readiness for users.

American Sign Language (ASL), an essential communication tool for the deaf and hard of hearing, has long relied on traditional teaching methods that may not fully leverage the potential of modern technology. Recognizing this gap, this paper introduces VirtuSign, an innovative solution that merges virtual reality (VR) with advanced gesture recognition to revolutionize ASL instruction. VirtuSign offers a tailored VR experience, immersing users in a gamified environment where they can interactively learn and practice signing the ASL alphabet. Enhanced by state-of-the-art artificial intelligence algorithms, the tool identifies and assesses user gestures in real-time through hand-tracking capabilities available in modern VR headsets, providing immediate feedback and corrections.

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.

The current study examined the effects of visual, auditory, and haptic feedback on VR text entry performance and perceived mental workload across two experiments. In Experiment 1, the feedback was presented as users were pointing from one key to another, dubbed pointing feedback. Results from Experiment 1 indicated that providing haptic pointing feedback led to faster text entry. Results also showed that providing any modality of pointing feedback resulted in more accurate text entry compared to no feedback, but there was no substantial contribution of additional pointing feedback modality to text accuracy when one pointing feedback modality was present. Providing auditory pointing feedback led to greater perceived mental workload of the VR text entry task. In Experiment 2, the feedback was provided when users selected the keys by pressing the trigger on the controller, dubbed selection feedback. Results from Experiment 2 showed that providing auditory or haptic selection feedback led to faster text entry performance and that providing visual selection feedback improved accuracy. The presence of haptic selection feedback led to lower levels of perceived mental workload. These results indicate that the usability of VR text entry tasks changes as a function of when and how feedback is provided.

Despite the surge in commercially available multiplayer mixed reality (XR) devices and applications, few studies have focused on the player experience during co-located, multiplayer gameplay in XR environments. To address this gap, we designed and developed Escape from Kyle-Earth, a co-located, multiplayer XR game that can be played in both AR and VR using a head-mounted display. We then conducted a user study with 26 participants, in which each participant played both versions of the game. Our results indicate that VR evoked a stronger sense of presence while its AR counterpart increased co-presence between players. However, there was no significant difference in game enjoyment between the two platforms. Our work contributes to the burgeoning literature on co-located immersive gaming.

Virtual reality (VR) researchers struggle to conduct remote studies. Previous work has focused on working around limitations imposed by traditional crowdsourcing methods. However, the potential for leveraging social VR platforms for HCI evaluations is largely unexplored. These platforms have large VR-ready user populations, distributed synchronous virtual environments, and support for user-generated content. We demonstrate how social VR platforms can be used to practically and ethically produce valid research results by replicating two studies using one such platform (VRChat): a quantitative study on Fitts’ Law and a qualitative study on tabletop collaboration. Our replication studies exhibited analogous results to the originals, indicating the research validity of this approach. Moreover, we easily recruited experienced VR users with their own hardware for synchronous, remote, and collaborative participation. We further provide lessons learned for future researchers experimenting using social VR platforms. This paper and all supplemental materials are available at osf.io/c2amz.