XR Accessibility User Needs

Joshue O Connor - Emerging Web Technology/Accessibiity (W3C/WAI)

IRC Channel: #inclusive-xr

Intro on Me..

Current Emerging Web Technology Accessibility Specialist with Web Accessibiity Initiative (WAI/W3C). Strong background in Accessible Web Development, Usability testing involving people with disabilities and Standards development.
Ex co-chair of the AGWG/WCAG working group where I helped lead work on WCAG 2.1.
Funded by the EU WAI-GUIDE Project implementation and training guidance, tooling, as well as user needs/requirements gathering and finding gaps in Accessibility Standardisation.

Sharing my current work with the workshop attendees and getting feedback.
Contribute to the discussion on identifying any current gaps in how WebXR/XR content is rendered.
Identify issues will help with defining a suitable architecture for XR that will support the broadest possible range of accessibility requirements.
What kind of technical architecture is needed to support accessibility?
What are the challenges?

Mostly I work with Accessibile Platform Architectures Working Group (APA) and the Research Questions Task Force (RQTF).

We have drafted a user needs and requirements document for XR.

Taken a modular approach to user requirements as they relate to Navigation, Object Semantics, Interaction and more.

We have a draft checklist of 'things to do' - somewhat inspired by parts of the Game Accessibility Guidelines (which are great).

NOTE: APA aim to publish XAUR as a non-normative working group note.

Lack of awareness of accessibilty requirements and needs - but this is changing.
Potential for lots of 'token accessibility' in this space.
Lack of Declarative Semantics/broader AOM or Object Orientated XR, complex rendering environments where we need to identify loops that can support accessibility. The need for 'modal muting' (will explain) as we as various platform API and performance challenges.
Will traditional DOM => Accessibility Tree/API models be enough?
Will other models such as the use of semantic scene graphs be helpful?

We need to work out what the main pain point areas and gaps are. This is a work in progress.
We need to work out what 'good looks like' in this space (in other words identify best practices for accessibility).
We need engagement from accessibility experts in XR development.
We need broader engagement from platform/AT/API devs.
The Gaming industry is starting to take accessibility very seriously and there will be lots of interesting lessons learned in this space.
If you are interested in accessibility and XR - Get involved!
We've got Accessibile Platform Architectures Working Group (APA) and the Research Questions Task Force (RQTF)

Ok, great stuff - lets discuss.

QUESTIONS?/COMMENTS?