2025-10-27 バース大学
Web要約 の発言：
Freehand controls such as pinching, swiping and pressing virtual buttons are often inaccessible, painful or fatiguing for people with even mild upper limb impairments.
＜関連情報＞
- https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/vr-hand-gestures-risk-excluding-millions-study-finds/
- https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3663547.3746402
バーチャルリアリティにおけるフリーハンドジェスチャーのアクセシビリティは？上肢運動障害を持つユーザーにとっての障壁を理解する How Accessible are Virtual Reality Freehand Gestures? Understanding Barriers for Users with Upper Limb Motor Impairments
Lauren Pococke, Crescent Jicol, Christof Lutteroth, Christopher Clarke
ASSETS ’25: Proceedings of the 27th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility Published: 22 October 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3663547.3746402
Abstract
Despite the growing adoption of freehand interactions in virtual reality (VR), the accessibility of default gesture implementations for individuals with upper limb motor impairments remains largely unexamined. To investigate unique accessibility challenges, we recruited adults with upper limb impairments (n=8) and a control group (n=16). We captured subjective and objective measures of impairment before participants performed common freehand interactions in VR including pinching, grasping, pressing, swiping and scrolling. Through observational analyses and semi-structured interviews, we identified usability barriers. Our findings reveal that even when gestures are functionally possible, restrictive implementations cause pain and fatigue for users with impairments. In particular, pinching – widely used in state-of-the-art systems – relies heavily on the index finger, while both pinching and grasping are often defined by rigid performance thresholds. These factors exacerbate accessibility issues, especially when paired with the limitations of current tracking technologies. These insights highlight critical gaps in current design considerations and lay the foundation for developing more inclusive freehand interaction systems that reduce pain and better support a range of motor abilities.
