Toward inclusivity: Virtual reality museums for the visually impaired

Tycho Zaal*, Alkim Almila Akdag Salah, Wolfgang Hurst

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

The access to virtual reality museums mostly relies on the visual sense, making it difficult if not impossible for visually impaired people to partake in the experience. We present a between-subjects study exploring if narrations and spatialized 'reference' audio combined with haptic feedback can be a sufficient replacement for the traditional use of vision in a virtual reality art museum. Our pilot study compares two implementations: A standard 'sighted' version that provides visual artifacts along with related acoustic narratives, a 'visually impaired' version with modified narratives and enhanced audio and haptics that was tested by visually impaired participants, as well as 'blindfolded' sighted individuals. Auditory and haptic feedback in the latter version were used to steer visitors towards specific virtual objects. Although the experiences of the visually impaired were obviously not statistically equivalent to the non-impaired group, results show that our method enabled them to experience the virtual reality museum adequately and find objects faster due to the additional auditory and haptic feedback.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2022 IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (AIVR)
PublisherIEEE
Pages225-233
Number of pages9
ISBN (Electronic)978-1-6654-5725-5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022
Event5th IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality, AIVR 2022 - Virtual, Online, United States
Duration: 12 Dec 202214 Dec 2022

Conference

Conference5th IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality, AIVR 2022
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityVirtual, Online
Period12/12/2214/12/22

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 IEEE.

Keywords

  • virtual exhibition
  • virtual museum
  • virtual reality
  • visually impaired

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