VR ACCESSIBILITY DESIGN
Accessibiliy Frameworks for Foretell Reality
Role: UI and UX design, prototyping, QA testing, and deployment
Hardware: Oculus Quest 2
Software: Figma, Photoshop
Audience: Edstutia (client of Foretell Reality, a VR Education company)
Time frame: June 2023
Team: Olivier Morland (Developer), Saul Pena (Project Manager & Developer), Dror Goldberg (Supervisor), Howard Olah-Reiken (Technical Supervisor), Woodrow Proctor (Developer)
Problem:
Foretell Reality's Client Edstutia expressed that the app was not accessible to all their users with sight, hearing, and limb disabilities.
Virtual Reality Accessibility Frameworks and Design
Project Scope:
1. Closed Captioning for Deaf and Hard of Hearing
2. Enlarged Text for Impaired Vision
3. Real-Time Spoken Notifications for Impaired Vision
4. Optimized App for Colorblindness
5. Single-Hand Mode for Reduced Mobility
6. Audio and Haptics Framework
7. Tooltips
BEFORE /AFTER
ERRORS:
BEFORE
Before, error messages would appear as red text on a white panel, making people with color blindness unable to see them. The text was also very small and thin.
ERRORS:
AFTER
Error messages are now displayed on a pop up message with larger, darker text on a large popup banner, increasing accessibility for those with color blindness and visual impairments, as well as reducing eye strain for all other users.
HIGHLIGHTS:
BEFORE
Before, we had cyan highlights on white panels, which were almost invisible to those with colorblindness. There was an inconsistency in the highlight colors, and the design of the menu was also cluttered.
HIGHLIGHTS:
AFTER
All highlights are now a dark blue that is visible to most with color blindness because of the increased contrast. The hierarchy and design of the menus are simpler.
Design process:
Our process can be called Empathetic VR Product Management with the following features:
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Early Expert Involvement
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Continuous Inclusivity Testing: Team members with special needs contributed towards development and testing.
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Simulated Disabilities: The team simulated disabilities to gain insights into user experiences.
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Iteration through to Quality Assurance testing.
Challenges:
• Time constraint of 1 month
•Design constraint of keeping as much of the menus the same in aesthetics
• Lack of literature and examples for 3D Accessibility Design
• Lack of qualified users to test the features
• Lack of framework in the existing tooltips, UI, and audio implementations
Outcomes:
• The VR app now meets Meta's 9 core guidelines for accessibility
• End users with disabilities can now use the app more comfortably
• The team has guidelines for how to develop and implement new tooltips, notifications, as well as UI haptics and sounds
Testing
The short timeline mandated limited user testing, but some testing was done taking advantage of in-house resources. For example, a team member had red-green color blindness. We worked with him to see which areas it was hard for him to see the color in, then changed the color and tested it with him. Other employees who had never seen the accessibility features also tested them by turning off the volume on our headsets to determine if the closed captioning made it easy to follow the conversation. Loss of an arm was simulated with the use of one arm only.
