Creating a Virtual Reality OER Application to Teach Web Accessibility

Awareness of web accessibility issues is necessary for, amongst other things, good website design. Good website design can mean the difference between disabled users being able to access the website content, or not. This paper describes the impact of a student-led project to develop a VR application, as an Open Education Resource (OER), to increase users’ knowledge and awareness of accessibility. An evaluation for the intervention delivered by the VR application was conducted, according to which, the VR application generally increased knowledge and awareness of web accessibility, but also had a negative impact on some users. The project targetted a Human Computer Interaction (HCI) class taught at the first Sino-foreign higher education institution, University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC). UNNC has already been involved in research into flipped classrooms, technology-enhanced teaching, and the development of several OERs. This paper introduces the background, motivation and objectives, design, and specification of the VR application. The impact of the application on users is evaluated, and some possible future work is discussed.