TY - GEN
T1 - Opportunities for Accessible Virtual Reality Design for Immersive Musical Performances for Blind and Low-Vision People
AU - Dang, Khang
AU - Korreshi, Hamdi
AU - Iqbal, Yasir
AU - Lee, Sooyeon
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 ACM.
PY - 2023/10/13
Y1 - 2023/10/13
N2 - Blind and low-vision (BLV) individuals often face challenges in their attendance and appreciation of musical performances (e.g., concerts, musicals, opera) due to limited mobility and accessibility of visual information. However, the emergence of Virtual Reality (VR) based musical performance as a common medium of music access opens up opportunities to mitigate the challenges and enhance the musical experiences by investigating non-visual VR accessibility. This study aims to 1) gain an in-depth understanding of the experiences of BLV individuals, including their preferences, challenges, and needs in listening to and accessing various modes (audio, video, and on-site experiences) of music and musical performances and 2) explore the opportunities that VR can create for making the immersive musical experiences accessible for BLV people. Using a mixed-methods approach, we conducted an online survey and a semi-structured interview study with 102 and 25 BLV participants, respectively. Our findings suggest design opportunities for making the VR space non-visually accessible for BLV individuals, enabling them to participate equally in the VR world and to further access immersive musical performances created by VR technology. Our research contributes to the growing body of knowledge on accessibility in virtual environments, particularly in the context of music listening and appreciation for BLV individuals.
AB - Blind and low-vision (BLV) individuals often face challenges in their attendance and appreciation of musical performances (e.g., concerts, musicals, opera) due to limited mobility and accessibility of visual information. However, the emergence of Virtual Reality (VR) based musical performance as a common medium of music access opens up opportunities to mitigate the challenges and enhance the musical experiences by investigating non-visual VR accessibility. This study aims to 1) gain an in-depth understanding of the experiences of BLV individuals, including their preferences, challenges, and needs in listening to and accessing various modes (audio, video, and on-site experiences) of music and musical performances and 2) explore the opportunities that VR can create for making the immersive musical experiences accessible for BLV people. Using a mixed-methods approach, we conducted an online survey and a semi-structured interview study with 102 and 25 BLV participants, respectively. Our findings suggest design opportunities for making the VR space non-visually accessible for BLV individuals, enabling them to participate equally in the VR world and to further access immersive musical performances created by VR technology. Our research contributes to the growing body of knowledge on accessibility in virtual environments, particularly in the context of music listening and appreciation for BLV individuals.
KW - Accessibility for Blind and Low Vision People
KW - Multimodal Interaction
KW - Non-Visual Feedback Modalities
KW - VR Mediated Musical Performance
KW - Virtual Reality
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85176142645&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85176142645&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/3607822.3614540
DO - 10.1145/3607822.3614540
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85176142645
T3 - Proceedings - SUI 2023: ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction
BT - Proceedings - SUI 2023
A2 - Spencer, Stephen N.
PB - Association for Computing Machinery, Inc
T2 - 2023 ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction, SUI 2023
Y2 - 13 October 2023 through 15 October 2023
ER -