Home // SMART ACCESSIBILITY 2023, The Eighth International Conference on Universal Accessibility in the Internet of Things and Smart Environments // View article

Design of an Accessible VR-Escape Room for Accessibility Education

Authors:
Saba Mateen
Paula Wiesemüller
Sarah Voß-Nakkour

Keywords: Accessibility Education; Virtual Reality; Game Accessibility; Escape Room

Abstract:
Access to Escape is a Virtual Reality (VR) Escape Room, aimed at sensitizing computer science students to the importance of digital accessibility. Since these students will develop digital content in the future, this target group is an important starting point to create awareness towards the topic. This article outlines the development of a VR game based on the viewpoints of Accessibility Education, Game Accessibility, and accessible VR to offer access to a wide range of people. The primary objective is to address the research question of what steps are necessary to create an accessible VR game and what the design process should entail to achieve this goal. The development process of Access to Escape showed that the Game Accessibility Guidelines (GAG) workflow offered a low threshold starting point, for example, by making the vast amount of accessibility guidelines more tangible. Here, it should be emphasized that the prioritization, as suggested by the workflow, must not lead to the exclusion of any applicable guidelines, since every guideline is needed to guarantee an accessible game experience. However, during the implementation process of our VR-Escape Room, it became apparent that many resources and a well-defined time schedule are needed to achieve a fully accessible game. To counteract this issue, more information material and open-source solutions are needed to meet all accessibility requirements.

Pages: 19 to 24

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2023

Publication date: April 24, 2023

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2519-8378

ISBN: 978-1-68558-084-1

Location: Venice, Italy

Dates: from April 24, 2023 to April 28, 2023