Enhancing Hand Interactions and Accessibility in Virtual Reality Environments for Users With Motor Disabilities: A Practical Case Study on VR-Shopping

Rubén Grande; Javier Albusac; Vanesa Herrera; Dorothy Monekosso; Ana De Los Reyes-Guzman; David Vallejo; J. J. Castro-Schez

doi:10.1109/access.2025.3549527

Enhancing Hand Interactions and Accessibility in Virtual Reality Environments for Users With Motor Disabilities: A Practical Case Study on VR-Shopping

Rubén Grande, Javier Albusac, Vanesa Herrera, Dorothy Monekosso, Ana De Los Reyes-Guzman, David Vallejo, J. J. Castro-Schez

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Abstract

Over the past decade, Virtual Reality (VR) has achieved significant advancements in both quality and accessibility of its devices, particularly with VR headsets that offer an enhanced immersive experience at a reduced cost. This improvement is not only in graphical fidelity but also in interactivity within virtual environments, highlighted by advancements in tracking systems that allow direct manipulation with hands-free of external devices. However, these technologies are not fully adapted for use by individuals with motor disabilities in their arms and hands. This study addresses the ethical and moral obligation to make VR accessible to all users by proposing specific adaptations to the manual interaction mechanisms. Focusing on VR e-commerce as a use case, which is anticipated to revolutionize the shopping experience in the coming years, this study explores a scenario where users need to navigate and manipulate virtual products to examine and make purchase decisions. The experimental phase was conducted in a real-world setting at the Hospital Nacional de Parapléjicos in Toledo (HNPT), involving patients with spinal cord injuries and motor limitations. The results demonstrate that the adapted interactions not only enable users to perform tasks that are impossible with conventional mechanisms but also reduce the time and effort required to complete these tasks. Specifically, completion times achieved by users increased up to 91.6%. Also, the number of tasks completed highly increased in comparison with unadapted interactions. We elaborate an Effort Degree (ED) formula with various data items based on hand movements, that demonstrated that adapted interactions required around 40% less effort for individuals with mobility issues. These findings underscore the potential of
adapted VR technologies to significantly enhance the inclusivity and utility of emerging e-commerce platforms, providing equitable access to new forms of digital engagement.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	44062-44089
Number of pages	28
Journal	IEEE Access
Volume	13
Early online date	10 Mar 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2025.3549527
Publication status	Published - 17 Mar 2025

Bibliographical note

Data Access Statement

All data collected during the experiment are publicly available in the GitHub repository: https://github.com/AIR-Research-Group-UCLM/VR-Hands-Interactions-Adapted. The repository is organized into two folders. One of them contains twelve folders, one for each of the users, containing all the data. The other, contains some Python code used to extract the information shown in the results section. The following Google Drive link contains a video showing the adapted interactions used in our case study https://github.com/AIR-Research-Group-UCLM/VR-Hands-Interactions-Adapted/blob/master/video_link.txt.

Funding

This work was supported in part by the Research Project, entitled Mixed Reality-Based Platform on 5G Infrastructure for Remote Support and Diagnosis Among Nursing, General Practitioners, and Medical Specialists (MRP-5G) under Grant ID SBPLY/23/180225/000182; in part by the European Union through European Regional Development Fund (FEDER); in part by Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha through Castilla-La Mancha Agency for Research and Innovation (INNOCAM); in part by the Project Design and Development of a Platform based on VR Shopping and AI for the Digitalization and Strengthening of Local Businesses and Economies, which was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100000033 and the European Union (NextGenerationEU/PRTR) under Grant TED2021-131082B-I00; and in part by the Project Platform for Upper Extremity Rehabilitation based on Immersive Virtual Reality (Rehab-Immersive), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 under Grant PID2020-117361RB-C21 and Grant PID2020-117361RB-C22. The work of Rubén Grande was supported by the Pre-doctoral FPI (Research Staff Training) contract at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, from the European Union through the European Social Fund Plus (FSE+)

Keywords

Virtual reality
adapted hand interaction
motor limitations
accessibility
inclusivity
e-commerce

Access to Document

10.1109/access.2025.3549527

Enhancing_Hand_Interactions_and_Accessibility_in_Virtual_Reality_Environments_for_Users_With_Motor_Disabilities_A_Practical_Case_Study_on_VR-Shopping
Copyright © 2025 The Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Final published version, 6.11 MBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

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title = "Enhancing Hand Interactions and Accessibility in Virtual Reality Environments for Users With Motor Disabilities: A Practical Case Study on VR-Shopping",

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Enhancing Hand Interactions and Accessibility in Virtual Reality Environments for Users With Motor Disabilities: A Practical Case Study on VR-Shopping

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Access Statement

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

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