There’s no such thing as 100% accessibility. There will always be at least one person who prefers something different from the majority. If there’s one thing video games are known for regardless of the platform, it’s providing gameplay options. The options go beyond accessibility. Game developers want to let players customize their settings to ensure they have the best gaming experiences. When it comes to virtual reality, providing options can be a tricky proposition. This is because virtual reality has a unique vocabulary that not everyone knows or understands. While my youngest was home from ..read more

Incorporating diverse locomotion styles in virtual reality (VR) is crucial for creating an inclusive and accessible experience. By offering options such as teleportation, arm swinging, or free movement, VR developers can cater to different preferences, abilities, and comfort levels. People with mobility disabilities benefit from these options, as they can navigate VR environments effortlessly and without physical strain. The availability of customizable settings further empowers users to optimize their VR experience based on their needs, reducing motion sickness and enhancing their sense of fr ..read more

Closed captions provide another way for people to get audio information in various media formats, such as movies and TV shows. Captions are essential to ensure that dialogue, sound effects, and music are accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing. This holds true in virtual reality (VR), where captions enhance the accessibility of games, social worlds, and other immersive experiences. Additionally, out of the 7.5 million who use subtitles, 6 million did not have a hearing disability per a BBC article referencing OfCom’s data. Hence, many people benefit from captions. Nonetheless, it ..read more

Meta has nine accessibility Virtual Reality Checks (VRC) for creating accessible virtual reality (VR) experiences for people with disabilities. This looks at Accessibility VCR.Accessibility.5, which focuses on providing users with the ability to adjust display settings such as contrast, saturation, temperature, hue shift, and tint to accommodate their visual needs. This article will help developers incorporate this into their VR applications to ensure a more inclusive user experience. Before diving in, you can try the demo and view the source code. New to Virtual Reality Development? If you’re ..read more

VRTogether designed a virtual reality social game that is designed to alleviate loneliness and improve a person’s well-being. Equal Entry worked with Azalee Group to see if using VRTogether’s virtual reality app could improve the lives of seniors and the education of children. The study took place at Azalee’s facility. Overview of the User Study The game contains different interactive scenes that take place at a beach, in a forest, or in a hot air balloon. The research opened with participants entering the beach scene. The goal was to give participants the opportunity to practice basic control ..read more

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines require all non-text content to have a text alternative provided. Though this requirement has existed for over 20 years, there is no official way to add it to 3D content. This article proposes a method for providing and embedding the alternative text into the metadata of the file and having various software platforms recognize it. Here’s how to do that using the glTF file format. Let’s talk about robust for a moment. We don’t want screen readers to have to write custom code for every application that they use. To be interoperable, there’s needs to be a ..read more

This is the Japanese translation of the English blog post, “Virtual Reality User Study with Children and Seniors in a VR Experience.” 弊社（イコールエントリー）が行ったVRのユーザーテストについての記録です。今回、イコールエントリーはVRTogether（VRトゥギャザー）さんとアゼリーグループさんと協力し、VRを用いた世代間交流の効果について調査しました。VRのユーザーテスト方法そのもの、高齢者と子供のVR使用から得られた発見、VRのアクセシビリティ、などについて書きます。 　弊社は、ウェブやアプリのアクセシビリティに関するコンサルティングサービスを提供しているアメリカの会社です。現在はVR・AR・XRのアクセシビリティについて調査をし、仮想空間を全ての人が参加できる様にする設計についての知見を蓄えています。 VRTogetherとは、高齢者施設で使用し、「孤独」を解消することを第一の目的として開発されている、VR ..read more

Technology solutions often overlook children and seniors. So, Equal Entry worked with VRTogether and Azalee Group to design a user study to understand how children and seniors can connect in a virtual reality (VR) world. In the study, participants play games, travel the world, and connect with others. VRTogether is a virtual reality social games platform built from the ground up with accessibility and inclusion at the forefront of its design. It’s a powerful tool for a person’s well-being, socialization, and health. It’s built for everyone to combat loneliness in our everyday lives. Azalee Gro ..read more

The augmented reality technology wave provides us with a chance to build accessible hardware and software solutions from the ground up, rather than as an afterthought. Xander and XRAI Glass are aiming to caption the world through smart glasses. Here’s your chance to get a glimpse of these augmented reality (AR) glasses. Founder and CEO Alex Westner shares what his company has learned from testing with customers and how these insights have helped shape the product. They believe that simplicity, reliability, and privacy are essential for the experience to be effective. Q&A with Alex and Paul ..read more

Katsutoshi Tsuji joined our virtual reality (VR) accessibility research and provided a lot of insightful feedback. You can read what he shared in Virtual Reality Accessibility: 11 Things We Learned from Blind Users After he tried the Equal Entry virtual reality environment, we interviewed him to gain insights on virtual reality from his perspective as a person who is blind. Have you ever used or had any thoughts on virtual reality? This was my first time using virtual reality. I had this image of sound moving around my body in various directions, but I was surprised at how subtle it was. The ..read more