Inclusivity in Virtual Reality

As a kid, I have always been interested in playing video games and imagining where the future would go ahead in Technology. While I have got the opportunity to play games on multiple platforms, on the other hand, someone who is close to me suffers from nystagmus(a vision condition), has had problems playing the games and always wished to play games that were a bit easier on the eyes. I realized then how Technology had entertained me, but not her, which seems very unfair.

Then, I came across a YouTube playlist of people playing Beat Saber, and I thought Viola! A game she could play with ease, and then, when I bought my Oculus quest, she enjoyed the experience of slicing the blocks, with a bit more comfort, than playing games on PC or gaming consoles. I could see how Virtual Reality could provide better accessibility for games if this Technology improved early.

PC, phones, tablets, and gaming consoles might have a lot of fantastic games, and a lot of PC games today do have better accessibility, where players can set the text in larger font size or even change the mode of difficulty. But VR games give a very different experience to people who face problems playing most open-world games that require interaction with the characters, like shooting or walking to a particular character. On the PC, it's a small screen. VR provides a larger environment to figure out the characters and interact with them.

As we progress in Technology, we keep making it easier to use for the general population. But quite a few times, we fail to include scenarios where a differently-abled person, an older adult, or anyone who by usual technology definition is not considered general population could use a technology product. While we make new Technology, it has become more crucial to consider inclusivity.

Today, virtual reality provides awe-inspiring experiences to people who cannot travel around the world and help people who can't travel much. But yes, VR isn't perfect, and there are many things Meta and other VR companies need to improve on to have more inclusivity. Even in the Metaverse advertisements, there was no mention of inclusivity in any way.

There aren't many options in most VR applications I've played to optimize colourblind friendliness, increase text sizes, or more such interactions. Often, the applications demand the user to stand or do a specific physical activity, which might be challenging to some people. While designing Virtual Reality headsets and the VR software platforms, it is pretty clear that they did not consider inclusivity the primary goal. Neither is wearing the headset easy for people, nor are there any guidelines set for Virtual Reality developers to encourage inclusivity and accessibility.

If Metaverse has to be accepted as the new future, the designing of Metaverse requires a more diverse group of people. We need a lot more varied ways of designing, developing, and testing both the HMD and the platforms, along with VR applications that follow the guidelines on a lot more diverse group of people.