360-degree media is growing in prevalence in fields such as education, tourism, architecture, and leisure. However, in cases of negligence in accessibility, immersive experiences can impose significant challenges for persons with disabilities. Currently, there are no official standards for 360-degree media. This aggravates the process of creating accessible immersive images and videos. The study aimed to review existing guidelines for immersive and non-immersive software and filter them by relevance to 360-degree media. As a result, we compiled a set of requirements that can serve as a tool for manual accessibility testing. In order to detect common barriers among applications that implement 360-degree media, we reviewed the accessibility of three educational learning platforms - ThingLink, Uptale, and ImmerseMe. All three platforms fulfilled less than 50% of the requirements, which proves the relevancy of the topic. Based on the findings, we summarized recommendations for platform developers and authors of 360-degree experiences. Future research should focus on involving real users in order to expand the findings of this study.

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Accessibility Guidelines for 360-Degree Platforms: Derivation and Implementation

  • Petya Ivanova,
  • Pirmin Gersbacher,
  • Gottfried Zimmermann

摘要

360-degree media is growing in prevalence in fields such as education, tourism, architecture, and leisure. However, in cases of negligence in accessibility, immersive experiences can impose significant challenges for persons with disabilities. Currently, there are no official standards for 360-degree media. This aggravates the process of creating accessible immersive images and videos. The study aimed to review existing guidelines for immersive and non-immersive software and filter them by relevance to 360-degree media. As a result, we compiled a set of requirements that can serve as a tool for manual accessibility testing. In order to detect common barriers among applications that implement 360-degree media, we reviewed the accessibility of three educational learning platforms - ThingLink, Uptale, and ImmerseMe. All three platforms fulfilled less than 50% of the requirements, which proves the relevancy of the topic. Based on the findings, we summarized recommendations for platform developers and authors of 360-degree experiences. Future research should focus on involving real users in order to expand the findings of this study.