Design for accessibility: enabling a motion-impaired artist to control a 3D virtual world

The application of 3D virtual worlds is not restricted to immersive or desktop virtual environments. Concepts and techniques that became mature in Virtual Reality applications are now finding their way in artistic performances. This paper presents an example of the mutual inspiring effect of art and technology, where the origin and nature of technology itself is used to come to a new artistic solution and language. More specific, we describe our approach to give a disabled person the opportunity to play a major role in artistic performances. In the end, the performance should not only be appealing for the attendance, but especially for the actors involved in the show. The wheelchair of the motion-impaired actor is enhanced by non-intrusive technology, allowing him to navigate in and interact with a 3D virtual world. This way, he controls the performance by determining the images perceived by the attendance. The intriguing 3D virtual worlds are presented to the public via a projection system. Universal accessibility of computer applications nowadays gets a lot of attention in the HCI community. Tools and techniques have emerged that enable persons with particular handicaps to access common software. Of course it is justified to support professional tasks, but the quality of life depends not only on serious software applications. Beyond that level of accessibility are opportunities in personal development, entertainment etc. Continuing on that path, we realised our solution that enables the disabled actor to be an active player. This solution will be described from a usability as well as a technological point of view. The next section provides the necessary background of the “Icarus man-o-war” artistic project, which is the context of the accessibility design. In the remainder of