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andrewVRgaming
Explorer
Status: New Idea

Hello, 

i figured I was the only person with a visual impairment who used Oculus, but it turns out I’m not alone as lots of people on the internet say they’re legally blind and use Oculus. The idea behind Oculus for low vision is great, it puts the screen right next to your eyes so you can see. What could make Oculus better for the visually impaired is the addition of accessibility features. The first feature that would be very helpful would be a screen zoom function. I don’t know how this would work in a 3D environment, but it could convert into 2D and then zoom in on that. Another feature that would be helpful is some kind of screen reader. When you point to an item on the screen, it would speak it to you. If you want to click the button, you do that as normal.  I know it won’t work with all games/apps immediately, but adding it to the system would help with Oculus made apps, settings, and notifications. Developer tools would be nice though so that 3rd party apps would work better with the screen reader. These features could be enabled with a button sequence or shortcut, and then disabled when not needed.  Adding these features might make the oculus even more appealing to low vision users who want to be able to have everything closer to their eyes in a way that looks normal and cool.  

3 Comments
cemkaya
Honored Guest

These would be very usefull indeed.

SpyWolf385
Honored Guest

I agree as well and have the screen reader and the zoom in feature an option when you first use the Oculus. I bought one and I could not read a single thing with my visual impairment, I had to let my little sister help me on the start up screen. Once I got done with the start up screen, I immediately went to the fonts on settings and put it to largest but honestly I did not see a difference. I know it's a new device and all but I'm hoping these features would be implemented very soon. 

user_224292927701043
Honored Guest

I hope Oculus picks up on these recommendations.  I have a loved one that is visually impaired and sees potential promise in the technology offered via this very cool gadget!  I'll keep checking back for developments to see if there are any additions.  One other suggestion is maybe having the Oculus have the capacity to connect by blue tooth to PCs/laptops and be used as a tool for the visually impaired to magnify (and possibly read) their screens to assist them in day-to-day activities.  One can only hope.  Thanks everyone!