PurposeIn recent years, a large number of

No abstract

In this work, we present a bespoke assistive tool for people with severe visual disabilities. We are able to download text from books and present these books to our users in a virtual reality environment¿ This gives them specific capabilities to manipulate the text and factors such as brightness, size and contrast, in order for them to gain a comfortable reading experience.

We aim to help improve the quality of life of people with visual disabilities through the application of emerging technologies. Our current research investigates the viability of Virtual Reality (VR) as an aid for persons with visual disabilities. In this article, we explore the potential of VR assisted reading. We investigate the reading effects of VR equipment on persons with visual disabilities by utilising variations of standardised optometry-informed reading tests conducted across 24 participants. Test results uncovered that, when comparing a worn VR head-mounted display (HMD) to physical unaided tests, results within a HMD scaled better at closer distances while unaided tests scaled better with further distances. Using the findings collected and requirements elicited from participants, a prototype document reader was developed for reading text within a VR immersed 3D environment, allowing low vision users to customise and configure accessibility features for enhanced reading. This software was tested with 11 new participants alongside user evaluations, allowing us to discover how users perceived text best within our 3D virtual environments, and what features and techniques are required to evolve this accessibility tool further. The user test reported an overwhelmingly positive response to our tool as a feasible

We present our work on creating a virtual reality personal library environment to enable people with severe visual disabilities to engage in reading tasks. The environment acts as a personal study or library to an individual, who under other circumstances would not be able to access or use a public library or a physical study at home. We present tests undertaken to identify the requirements and needs of our users to inform this environment and fnally present the working prototype. CCS CONCEPTS• Information systems → Multimedia information systems; • Human-centered computing → Accessibility systems and tools; Accessibility technologies; • Hardware → Emerging technologies.