Exploring Aiming Techniques for Blind People in Virtual Reality

Aiming tasks are common in VR, but are challenging to perform without vision. They require identifying a target's location and then precisely aiming and selecting it. In this paper, we explore how to support blind people in aiming tasks using a VR Archery scenario. We implemented three techniques: 1) Spatialized Audio, a baseline where the target emits a specific 3D sound to convey its location; 2) Target Confirmation, where the previous condition is augmented with secondary Beep sounds to indicate proximity to the target; and 3) Reticle-Target perspective, where the auditory feedback conveys the relation between the target and the user's aiming reticle. A study with 15 blind participants compared the three techniques under two scenarios: stationary and moving targets. Target Confirmation and Reticle-Target Perspective clearly outperformed Spatialized Audio, but user preferences were evenly split between these two techniques. We discuss how our findings may support the development of VR experiences that are more accessible and enjoyable to a broader range of users.