Will Web3, The Metaverse & AR/VR ever be accessible for me?

Originally Published on LinkedIn: Article Source

Once upon a time... I was the Head of Global Innovation for a large global multi-brand retailer. It was a super cool job! My focus was purely on emerging technologies and what role they played in retail. To be honest I was a bit ahead of my time in that role because retail "wasn't ready" for the gadgets I was experimenting with.

When 2020 and the pandemic hit there was exponential growth in the adoption of digital. We don't need to rehash the nightmare of that time, but what is undeniable is that it accelerated the expected path to digital adoption 3x and it swung the door wide open for the emerging technology that was initially about 5-10 years down the road.

So what does this have to do with accessibility... nothing yet. In fact, I will openly say that at the time I was working in innovation I was not paying much attention to accessibility. I mention this because I do notice how little my network (outside of the a11y space) touches on the accessibility topic. I'm not here to "yell at you", I'm here to ask you questions and perhaps get you thinking about this now. Let's get those gears turning and consider how to create a more inclusive Web 3.0, Metaverse and AR/VR World.

Hang on... I just said the "I" word - Inclusive. Let's talk about that for a moment, shall we?

I have noticed several brands getting very excited about how they are committed to making the metaverse inclusive by broadening the representation of characters and avatars in the space. That's a great start and I'm not here to knock that, but I am going to start asking some hard questions that might challenge you. Are you ready?

I'm going to make the assumption that you are a bit familiar with my profile and my disabilities, but in case you are not here are some links to get you up to speed. I'm also going to be very clear that I'm not going to cover all disabilities here, I'm only going to speak about my disabilities because I can speak from first-hand experiences and these are the areas that I am most knowledgable in.

We have established that a large part of my career I was focused on innovation and emerging tech. So prior to 2021 when I got Ramsay Hunt Syndrome I was absolutely first in line to try out a new headset, play with AR experiences and dive head first into any piece of wearable tech I could get my hands on. But after 2021 and becoming disabled with vestibular dysfunction everything changed. In this article I talk about vestibular and neurological issues and digital displays, please take a moment to look at that if you haven't already.

If a person with a vestibular disorder, seizure disorder, sensory disorder or who is neurodivergent struggles to be in the presence of a 2D digital display with moving content... Imagine what that experience would be like in a more "immersive" experience. In a 2D world any POV (point of view) camera angles are completely off-limits for me. This includes watching an instagram story where the person is filming while walking, movies, commercials with a POV / non-gimbal /non-stabilized camera angle and any sort of parallax type animation on the web.

So now, just imagine for a moment how my brain and body would react to being immersed in it? Often in immersive experiences there is a tendency to exaggerate movements, to give the feeling of going fast, flying, floating etc. If I can't ride in an elevator with screens (ie: One World Trade Center observation deck experience) because my brain cannot process the combination of any physical movement + visual hyper-stimulation, how can an immersive experience and the metaverse be a world where I will ever be welcome?

Sorry Dana, you just can't come in. That's what it feels like today, and this really makes me sad. As I hear more and more companies envisioning the future of retail, shopping, entertainment through this medium I wonder what the future looks like for me?

Today businesses aren't being "cracked down on" for Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and The European Accessibility Act (EAA) compliance for the metaverse and AR/VR, trust me the moment those mediums are a central source of conducting any business or service, they will be. Many businesses are still struggling to get their 2D websites and apps to be compliant, just imagine the struggle and cost to make these emerging platforms accessible.

This is not a scare tactic... it's a challenge I am presenting to you as a creator of the next evolution of the web. We often talk about designing and building with accessibility in mind. We know that the more you think about these considerations up front, before you have invested a fortune in ideation, design and development the better set up you are to reduce replication of issues that can be extremely costly to fix. So while you are in these early stages of creation start thinking about how someone with disabilities from vision, to hearing, to mobility AND cognitive might navigate and experience your new virtual world.

It sounds like an impossible problem to solve! Maybe anything involving a headset, glasses, goggles and any type of immersion will be off limits for me... for life. But here is where I challenge that thinking.

One of the more traditional approaches to physical therapy for vestibular dysfunction and balance issues is called vestibular rehab. You basically walk back and forth over and over in a room shaking your head yes and no. This is designed to overstimulate your system and ultimately retrain your brain to stop "overreacting" to the motion or sensation. Thats the analog approach. BUT, studies have found that Vestibular Rehab using VR can be very effective in helping patients. So, if therapists can use VR to help patients with vertigo and balance disorders why can't the metaverse?

You just have to care enough to bother... So let's talk about why you should care. Are you getting older? That is a fact that every single person on this earth can relate to. Let me tell you a fun fact about aging: the human body’s vestibular system becomes less efficient and effective as we age.

Case study: My father spends 5-6 consecutive months a year on a boat, he is in his 70s. Recently when he returned to land, he discovered he was dizzy and imbalanced. He was very rattled by this and went to see my neurotologist. What he learned was that as we age our bodies are less able to reset and adjust to changes in our vestibular system. This is a natural occurrence with aging that every human being will experience to varying degrees. So what that means is you too, later in life are likely to have some form of vestibular dysfunction just like me... I just jumped on that rocking boat earlier than planned.

So, if we know that VR is inherently aggravating to anyone with a vestibular issue and we know that VR can also be used for therapy for someone with the same issue. We also know that all humans will ultimately experience some form of vestibular issues in their life. Last but not least, we know that as we age our bodies have less ability to adjust. Whether it's IRL (in real life) situations like going from a boat to land or perhaps going from a virtual boat to land these are going to trigger vestibular episodes. So even worse, that means that VR and the metaverse experiences can "cause" these episodes to occur. We probably need to care about this one, don't we.

In addition, some day in the future those 18 year olds who are living and breathing that Meta VR/AR Life are going to be over 40 aren't they? And while the human body does evolve, it doesn't evolve that fast. Building a future internet that is completely inaccessible to any aging population is just bad business.

This still sounds really hard. But, is it? Here are the things I challenge you to things about. Just like how creators are introducing more variety of personas for the metaverse, we need to start thinking about adding a level of experience personalization to all virtual environments. Giving the user the ability to customize their sensory inputs. Yes, we need captions options for people who are hard of hearing, but we also need audio level adjustments and equalizer adjustments for background sounds, sound effects, speaking. We need to allow the user to dampen the motion because they might not experience motion the same way as you do. We need to think about giving the user the ability to turn down or turn off lighting effects, flashing and strobing. We also need to make sure we are thinking about mobility and limited use of hands, fingers, arms and legs... what options are there to navigate when those might not be available to the user.

I'm not saying you need to solve for all of this immediately, but the more you start thinking about it now the more manageable things will be when it's time to implement those features. Moreover, maybe, just maybe, the metaverse and AR/VR can be a place where I am not only welcome, but that it can be a place that can help me. Can the metaverse become a space that is part of my healing, brain retraining and ongoing therapy that I have to be committed to for the rest of my time on this earth? For those that are motivated to be innovators you can innovate by making the experiences more accessible to all. Imagine that...