VRARE: Using Virtual Reality to Understand Accessibility Requirements of Color Blindness and Weakness

TL;DR

This paper presents a VR system that simulates color blindness and weakness to help understand accessibility needs, demonstrating benefits like improved user experience and lower workload in requirements gathering.

Contribution

We developed a VR-based tool for simulating color vision deficiencies and evaluated its effectiveness in requirements activities for accessibility.

Findings

VR improves user experience in accessibility requirements

VR reduces workload during requirements discussions

Participants better understand accessibility needs with VR

Abstract

In this paper, we developed a virtual reality (VR) system that can simulate color blindness and weakness. We built an immersive 3D web view interface where participants can discuss accessibility requirements for a fitness website projects within a virtual fitness environment. We conducted a pilot experiment involving 24 participants from six software teams, who used both VR and non-VR methods to understand color blindness and weakness requirements in a website project. Our findings indicate that using VR can provide several benefits for requirements activities, such as an improved user experience and reduced workload.