Asleep at the Virtual Wheel: The Increasing Inaccessibility of Virtual Reality Applications

Prior research has highlighted numerous accessibility barriers within virtual reality software, with guidelines emerging to address the requirements of diverse audiences. However, an empirical understanding of industry practitioner implementation of accessible guidelines within mainstream commercial applications is currently lacking. This review addresses this gap by categorising all accessibility features presented at a software-level in 330 of the most used virtual reality applications released between 2016 to 2023 on the Steam, Meta, Oculus, Viveport, and SideQuest platforms. Results suggest a growing lack of interaction customisation, with the number of applications allowing for alternative inputs and physical posture flexibility decreasing. Meanwhile, display output settings, such as text font resizing and colourblind alterations, are almost completely absent. Our findings highlight the evolution in the implementation of accessible features in virtual reality software, contributing to a representative overview of practitioner decisions, and acting as a catalyst towards the establishment of industry-wide guidelines.