Virtual Steps: The Experience of Walking for a Lifelong Wheelchair User in Virtual Reality

TL;DR

This work co-designed a VR walking experience with a person with Spinal Muscular Atrophy who has been a lifelong wheelchair user and found the experience of walking to be quite positive, providing a perspective from a higher vantage point than what was available in a wheelchair.

Abstract

Many people often take walking for granted, but for individuals with mobility disabilities, this seemingly simple act can feel out of reach. This reality can foster a sense of disconnect from the world since walking is a fundamental way in which people interact with each other and the environment. Advances in virtual reality and its immersive capabilities have made it possible to enable those who have never walked in their life to virtually experience walking. We co-designed a VR walking experience with a person with Spinal Muscular Atrophy who has been a lifelong wheelchair user. Over 9 days, we collected data on this person's experience through a diary study and analyzed this data to better understand the design elements required. Given that they had only ever seen others walking and had not experienced it first-hand, determining which design parameters must be considered in order to match the virtual experience to their idea of walking was challenging. Generally, we found the experience of walking to be quite positive, providing a perspective from a higher vantage point than what was available in a wheelchair. Our findings provide insights into the emotional complexities and evolving sense of agency accompanying virtual walking. These findings have implications for designing more inclusive and emotionally engaging virtual reality experiences.

Figures (5)

• Figure 1: Unity-based Experimental System with Oculus Integration SDK and Wit.ai service. The left side displays the GameObject hierarchy, while the right side illustrates component attachment to GameObjects and their references.
• Figure 2: (a) Taheri testing the experimental system. (b) Virtual mirror in the experimental system.
• Figure 3: DistilBERT sentiment scores over $9$ iterations: variations in emotions—surprise, fear, joy, sadness, anger, and love—across iterations in the graph align closely with significant events and system enhancements, providing an understanding of Taheri's emotional journey.
• Figure 4: Sentiment scores over $9$ iterations: (a) VADER sentiment scores showing the proportions of positive, neutral, and negative sentiments, as well as the compound score, across all iterations. (b) TextBlob sentiment scores showing polarity and subjectivity scores across all iterations.
• Figure 5: The virtual environment provided the setting for the virtual walking experience, featuring landmarks and props that motivated Taheri to explore. Her trajectory began at the cyan sphere and ended at the white sphere, with directional arrows indicating the path's orientation.