Inclusive Social Virtual Environments: Exploring the Acceptability of Different Navigation and Awareness Techniques

Social virtual environments are becoming more prevalent, replicating and sometimes replacing real-world interactions. Nowadays, such environments are not accessible and end up excluding blind people, due to their strong visual components. In this study, we designed and explored multiple navigation and feedback techniques assessing social acceptability, ease of use, and efficiency. We developed a virtual environment composed of six scenarios to analyze different navigation methods (Free Exploration, Teleport, Auto-Walk, and Co-Pilot) and awareness cues in group conversations (Audio Cues While In-Group Footsteps and In-Group Teleport), and conducted a user study with 8 blind and 8 sighted participants. Our results indicate that participants tend to privilege autonomy and room awareness over efficiency and navigation ease and disapprove of intrusive actions that may jeopardize privacy.