DiVRsify: Break the Cycle and Develop VR for Everyone
This addresses the problem of noninclusive VR development for underrepresented populations, but it is incremental as it primarily reviews existing issues without proposing new solutions.
The paper highlights that virtual reality technology is biased, excluding about 95% of the world's population due to design focused on specific demographics, and it points out differences in usability for underrepresented groups, showing a lack of generalizability in prior research.
Virtual reality technology is biased. It excludes approximately 95% the world's population by being primarily designed for male, western, educated, industrial, rich, and democratic populations. This bias may be due to the lack of diversity in virtual reality researchers, research participants, developers, and end users, fueling a noninclusive research, development, and usability cycle. The objective of this paper is to highlight the minimal virtual reality research involving understudied populations with respect to dimensions of diversity, such as gender, race, culture, ethnicity, age, disability, and neurodivergence. Specifically, we highlight numerous differences in virtual reality usability between underrepresented groups compared to commonly studied populations. These differences illustrate the lack of generalizability of prior virtual reality research. Lastly, we present a call to action with the aim that, over time, will break the cycle and enable virtual reality for everyone.