Access to Escape - An Immersive Game-Based Learning Experience for Accessibility Education in Virtual Reality

Abstract

The accessibility of digital systems determines the participation of a large number of people in everyday life. Therefore, it is important to teach this topic to future developers of the said systems. As accessibility can be hard to grasp due to one’s inability to experience the problematic barriers people with disabilities face, Virtual Reality (VR) comes into play. VR technology offers the opportunity to simulate situations encountered by persons with disabilities and enables the possibility of new experiences. To further analyze the suitability of a VR application to teach accessibility, we developed Access to Escape, an Immersive Game-Based Learning Experience for Accessibility Education in Virtual Reality. A first evaluation with 11 participants could show that the VR Escape Room helped to develop a different perspective through the simulated limitation of their senses and sensitize them to the issue of accessibility. The participants reported that they have discovered new connections concerning accessibility. Furthermore, the use of VR was perceived as very enjoyable, especially due to the increase of motivation and the simplification of the topic. Besides that, the results of the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) could show that the participants perceived the VR Escape Room as attractive, stimulating and novel. The evaluation demonstrates that a Game-Based Learning Experience in a virtual environment might lead to cognitive as well as affective learning outcomes. The use of the VR Escape Room in education has the potential to improve learning, especially to raise awareness of accessibility.