Brian Van Buren, who works as a narrative designer in the ‘Tomorrow Today Labs’, has been working on making the Virtual Reality experiences more accessible for the people who have physical limitations. He, himself, is a wheelchair user. He has done many experiments with Virtual Reality technology that actually enabled him to do in the Virtual World, that he was unable to do in the real and physical world. There are many recommendations that come directly from Brian Van Buren.
There are a few recommendations that Van Buren has given here. There are some primary recommendations is that you should not assume the dimensions of your user in terms of height, etc. He said that some of the experiences that handle all these kinds of problems include an experience with Hover Junkers. Hover Junkers offers the adjustment of a head model for different heights so that the users are able to play and enjoy different games and experiences like Space Pirate Trainer. The little and human mode in the Job Simulator also raises the head to a foot and a half in order to provide the access to both children as well as the people who are bound to be in wheelchairs.
He says that it’s easier to consider the accessibility at the design stage only rather than the afterwards. It is because the sooner you take the accessibility into your account; the better would be your mobility constraints. Inclusive of kinaesthetic game play mechanics such as crawling, crouching, reaching up that may give a deep sense of presence to the able-bodied persons who are of a certain height. Van Buren got his inspirations from Katie Goode and Adrienne Hunter, who have written in the context of designing Virtual Reality for all those people who have many physical limitations. It is true that Empathy is taking Virtual Reality to new heights!
