Investigating VR Accessibility Reviews for Users with Disabilities: A Qualitative Analysis

TL;DR

This study analyzes user reviews from Meta and Steam VR apps to identify accessibility issues faced by users with disabilities, revealing that such reviews are scarce but highlight significant challenges across various application types.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive qualitative analysis of VR accessibility reviews, categorizing disabilities and identifying common issues, filling a gap in understanding user experiences with VR accessibility.

Findings

Accessibility reviews are very limited (0.078%) among VR app reviews.

Six categories of disabilities were identified across 100 VR applications.

Most accessibility issues are under-supported and need further attention.

Abstract

Accessibility reviews provide valuable insights into both the limitations and benefits experienced by users with disabilities when using virtual reality (VR) applications. However, a comprehensive investigation into VR accessibility for users with disabilities is still lacking. To fill this gap, this study analyzes user reviews from the Meta and Steam stores of VR apps, focusing on the reported issues affecting users with disabilities. We applied selection criteria to 1,367,419 reviews from the top 40, the 20 most popular, and the 40 lowest-rated VR applications on both platforms. In total, 1,076 (0.078%) VR accessibility reviews referenced various disabilities across 100 VR applications. These applications were categorized into Action, Sports, Social, Puzzle, Horror, and Simulation, with Action receiving the highest number of accessibility related-reviews. We identified 16 different types of disabilities across six categories. Furthermore, we examined the causes of accessibility issues as reported by users with disabilities. Overall, VR accessibility reviews were predominantly under-supported.