Virtual reality (VR) is a computer-generated simulation that inserts a person into a 3D environment. VR has applications in education, training, rehabilitation, tourism, and other domains. However, because many VR experiences rely on vision, making them inaccessible to people with visual impairments, research is needed in how to make these experiences more widely available. One key barrier to accessibility is that people using VR frequently interact with objects in the simulation that move. This project will develop methods for incorporating sound, vibration, and other cues to help people with visual impairments locate and interact with virtual objects more effectively. Based on this work, the project team will create guidelines and tools software developers can use to create more accessible VR experiences, allowing people with visual impairments to reap their educational, immersive, and social benefits. The team will work closely with people with visual impairments as both participants and collaborators, including providing opportunities for youth with visual impairments to participate in computing through an annual computing camp.

The goal of this project is to help people with visual impairments understand and act on virtual reality environments that have moving targets. To meet these goals, the team will focus on three key components of VR interaction: 1) helping people accurately select nearby targets on a vertical plane, 2) accurately depicting the time-to-contact of approaching targets, and 3) using positional metaphors to indicate the location of multiple virtual targets simultaneously. Addressing each objective requires innovation in how to provide information to users with visual impairments, how to process input from users with visual impairments, and how to model a user's intent. The team will develop the virtual reality experiences using user-centered design approaches and conduct both lab and longitudinal evaluations of the solutions to each challenge. The project's education plan includes teaching computing concepts to youth with visual impairments, disseminating the research to less technology-centric fields, and integrating accessibility topics into computing coursework. This research will address unsolved problems in making virtual reality accessible to people with visual impairments, set guidelines for accessible virtual reality experiences based on empirical evidence, and develop an open-source toolkit.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS)
Application #
2044822
Program Officer
Dan Cosley
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2021-08-15
Budget End
2026-07-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2020
Total Cost
$102,118
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Iowa
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Iowa City
State
IA
Country
United States
Zip Code
52242