research-article

Exploring Visual and Motor Accessibility in Navigating a Virtual World

Authors:

Anna CavenderAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS), Volume 2, Issue 2

Article No.: 11, Pages 1 - 35

https://doi.org/10.1145/1530064.1530069

Published: 01 June 2009 Publication History

Abstract

For many millions of users, 3D virtual worlds provide an engaging, immersive experience heightened by a synergistic combination of visual realism with dynamic control of the user’s movement within the virtual world. For individuals with visual or dexterity impairments, however, one or both of those synergistic elements are impacted, reducing the usability and therefore the utility of the 3D virtual world. This article considers what features are necessary to make virtual worlds usable by such individuals. Empirical work has been based on a multiplayer 3D virtual world game called PowerUp, to which we have built in an extensive set of accessibility features. These features include in-world navigation and orientation tools, font customization, self-voicing text-to-speech output, key remapping options, and keyboard-only and mouse-only navigation. Through empirical work with legally blind teenagers and adults with cerebral palsy, these features have been refined and validated. Whereas accessibility support for users with visual impairment often revolves around keyboard navigation, these studies emphasized the need to support visual aspects of pointing device actions too. Other notable findings include use of speech to supplement sound effects for novice users, and, for those with cerebral palsy, a general preference to use a pointing device to look around the world, rather than keys or on-screen buttons. The PowerUp accessibility features provide a core level of accessibility for the user groups studied.

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Cited By

Larreina-Morales MMangiron C(2024)Audio description in video games? Persons with visual disabilities weigh inUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-023-01036-423:2(577-588)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10209-023-01036-4
Hasegawa RIchino J(2023)Inaccessibility maps to support sighted people using visually impaired people’s white cane dataTechnology and Disability10.3233/TAD-23001435:4(225-244)Online publication date: 27-Dec-2023
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Exploring Visual and Motor Accessibility in Navigating a Virtual World

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Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing Volume 2, Issue 2

June 2009

128 pages

ISSN:1936-7228

EISSN:1936-7236

DOI:10.1145/1530064

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2009 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

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Publication History

Published: 01 June 2009

Accepted: 01 February 2009

Revised: 01 February 2009

Received: 01 December 2008

Published in TACCESS Volume 2, Issue 2

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Cited By

Larreina-Morales MMangiron C(2024)Audio description in video games? Persons with visual disabilities weigh inUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-023-01036-423:2(577-588)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10209-023-01036-4
Hasegawa RIchino J(2023)Inaccessibility maps to support sighted people using visually impaired people’s white cane dataTechnology and Disability10.3233/TAD-23001435:4(225-244)Online publication date: 27-Dec-2023
https://doi.org/10.3233/TAD-230014
Zhao YCutrell EHolz CMorris MOfek EWilson ABrewster SFitzpatrick GCox AKostakos V(2019)SeeingVRProceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3290605.3300341(1-14)Online publication date: 2-May-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3290605.3300341
Zhao YBennett CBenko HCutrell EHolz CMorris MSinclair MMandryk RHancock MPerry MCox A(2018)Enabling People with Visual Impairments to Navigate Virtual Reality with a Haptic and Auditory Cane SimulationProceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3173574.3173690(1-14)Online publication date: 21-Apr-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3173574.3173690
López SCorno FDe Russis L(2017)Design and Development of One-Switch Video Games for Children with Severe Motor DisabilitiesACM Transactions on Accessible Computing10.1145/308595710:4(1-42)Online publication date: 9-Aug-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3085957
Yáñez-Gómez RCascado-Caballero DSevillano J(2017)Academic methods for usability evaluation of serious gamesMultimedia Tools and Applications10.1007/s11042-016-3845-976:4(5755-5784)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s11042-016-3845-9
Chakraborty JChakraborty SDehlinger JHritz J(2017)Designing video games for the blindUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-016-0510-z16:3(809-818)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10209-016-0510-z
Trewin SMarques DGuerreiro TYesilada YBigham J(2015)Usage of Subjective Scales in Accessibility ResearchProceedings of the 17th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility10.1145/2700648.2809867(59-67)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2015
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Porter J(2014)Understanding and addressing real-world accessibility issues in mainstream video gamesACM SIGACCESS Accessibility and Computing10.1145/2591357.2591364(42-45)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2591357.2591364
Vickers SIstance HHyrskykari A(2013)Performing Locomotion Tasks in Immersive Computer Games with an Adapted Eye-Tracking InterfaceACM Transactions on Accessible Computing10.1145/25148565:1(1-33)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2013
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