Fostering Inclusion: A Virtual Reality Experience to Raise Awareness of Dyslexia-Related Barriers in University Settings
This work addresses the problem of raising awareness and empathy for dyslexic students among non-dyslexic individuals in universities, representing an incremental improvement over traditional methods.
This paper tackles the problem of promoting inclusion for individuals with dyslexia in university settings by designing and validating a virtual reality experience that simulates dyslexia-related challenges, with results showing heightened awareness among over 30 non-dyslexic participants who found it valuable for fostering understanding.
This work introduces the design, implementation, and validation of a virtual reality (VR) experience aimed at promoting the inclusion of individuals with dyslexia in university settings. Unlike traditional awareness methods, this immersive approach offers a novel way to foster empathy by allowing participants to experience firsthand the challenges faced by students with dyslexia. Specifically, the experience raises awareness by exposing non-dyslexic individuals to the difficulties commonly encountered by dyslexic students. In the virtual environment, participants explore a virtual campus with multiple buildings, navigating between them while completing tasks and simultaneously encountering barriers that simulate some of the challenges faced by individuals with dyslexia. These barriers include reading signs with shifting letters, following directional arrows that may point incorrectly, and dealing with a lack of assistance. The campus is a comprehensive model featuring both indoor and outdoor spaces and supporting various modes of locomotion. To validate the experience, more than 30 non-dyslexic participants from the university environment, mainly professors and students, evaluated it through ad hoc satisfaction surveys. The results indicated heightened awareness of the barriers encountered by students with dyslexia, with participants deeming the experience a valuable tool for increasing visibility and fostering understanding of dyslexic students.