VR Accessibility in Distance Adult Education

TL;DR

This paper discusses the rise of VR in distance adult education, highlighting the lack of accessibility guidelines and the need for collaborative efforts to develop practical standards for inclusive VR educational experiences.

Contribution

It identifies the gap in accessibility guidelines for VR in distance education and proposes a collaborative workshop to develop practical standards.

Findings

VR is increasingly used in education globally.

No current accessibility guidelines for VR in education.

A workshop aims to create practical accessibility guidelines.

Abstract

As virtual reality (VR) technology becomes more pervasive, it continues to find multiple new uses beyond research laboratories. One of them is distance adult education -- the potential of VR to provide valuable education experiences is massive, despite the current barriers to its widespread application. Nevertheless, recent trends demonstrate clearly that VR is on the rise in education settings, and VR-only courses are becoming more popular across the globe. This trend will continue as more affordable VR solutions are released commercially, increasing the number of education institutions that benefit from the technology. No accessibility guidelines exist at present that are created specifically for the design, development, and use of VR hardware and software in distance education. The purpose of this workshop is to address this niche. It gathers researchers and practitioners who are interested in education and intend to work together to formulate a set of practical guidelines for the use of VR in distance adult education to make it accessible to a wider range of people.