University of Maryland

Towards VR Accessibility for Blind and Low-Vision Users Through a Multimodal Approach

Virtual reality (VR) is rapidly maturing and has the potential to become the next generation of the Internet by facilitating more immersive collaboration, education, and social interaction. However, current VR technology is vision-centric, thereby marginalizing more than a billion people with visual impairments worldwide. The goal of this research is to promote VR accessibility by designing and developing software and hardware solutions that integrate multi-modal feedback, specifically 3D audio and on-body haptics, allowing blind individuals to explore VR spaces efficiently and immersively.

This research will promote the accessibility of mainstream VR by designing multimodal interaction techniques that enable blind people to explore and navigate virtual environments effectively and immersively. Specifically, the research will contribute to: (1) an in-depth understanding of blind people’s challenges and needs during VR exploration; (2) the design and implementation of low-cost, lightweight, and easy-to-assemble hardware add-ons with high-fidelity haptic feedback; (3) in the long run, a set of 3D audio and haptic interaction techniques that support VR exploration for blind people by generating scene overviews, highlighting salient virtual elements, and enabling free space exploration. While focusing on accessible VR exploration, our technology can also be expanded to support real-world navigation for blind users, as well as providing a rich multimodal experience for all VR users. Additionally, the empirical data collected from blind users and VR developers will contribute to the development of actionable design guidelines for an accessible and immersive VR experience.

Project Team

Huaishu Peng (project lead), Jiasheng Li (student lead)

Project Outcomes

  1. The project has resulted in one full paper submission to IEEE VR 2025. The paper investigates the efficacy of two different haptic mechanisms, vibrotactile and skin-stretch, in delivering haptic notifications to blind users within an immersive VR context.
  2. Preliminary results have enabled the PI to submit a research grant proposal to the NIH, focusing on developing new technologies for VR accessibility.

 

A custom haptic device designed to render various haptic cues on the dorsal side of a blind participant. The picture shows: (a) Front view of the three-axis gantry system haptic device; (b) The touch probe; and (c) Study conducted at a participant's home.

A custom haptic device designed to render various haptic cues on the dorsal side of a blind participant: (a) Front view of the three-axis gantry system haptic device. (b) The touch probe. (c) Study conducted at a participant’s home.

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