XR for All: Understanding Developers' Perspectives on Accessibility Integration in Extended Reality

TL;DR

This study explores XR developers' perspectives on accessibility integration, highlighting challenges, current practices, and the need for comprehensive guidelines to improve accessibility in immersive technologies.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights from industry interviews and evaluates existing accessibility guidelines, proposing directions for effective support methods in XR development.

Findings

Developers face conflicting priorities and rapid development challenges.

Lack of early-stage accessibility considerations in XR design.

Existing guidelines have limitations when applied to XR environments.

Abstract

As immersive technologies enable unique, multimodal interaction methods, developers must also use tailored methods to support user accessibility, distinct from traditional software practices. We interviewed 25 industry extended reality (XR) developers, including freelancers, startups, midsize, and big tech companies about their motivations, techniques, barriers, and attitudes towards incorporating accessibility features in their XR apps. Our study revealed a variety of challenges, including conflicting priorities between application and platform developers regarding accessibility infrastructure; rapid development culture hindering accessible development; and the lack of accessible interaction design considerations at the ideation, design, and early prototyping stages. As a comprehensive set of XR accessibility guidelines has yet to be established, we also compiled and evaluated a set of accessibility guidelines for 3D virtual worlds and addressed their limitations when applied to XR. Finally, we inform the creation of effective support methods for industry developers.