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Learner experience and evidence of cybersickness: design tensions in a virtual reality public transportation intervention for autistic adults

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Abstract

People with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) exhibit a range of socio-communicative and behavioral deficits which leads to difficulties holding meaningful relationships and vocational opportunities. Unfortunately, it is oftentimes difficult for this population to transfer learned skills from controlled intervention contexts into the real-world. As a result, interest in using virtual reality (VR) to create naturalistic training contexts has grown. Research has provided evidence to support the benefits of using VR-based training for people with ASD. However, the emergence of commercially available head-mounted displays (HMD), and their association with cybersickness, has led many to wonder if people with ASD would continue to find VR as being acceptable if they were to be immersed within these devices. Further, people with ASD often have sensory integration disorders making the continued use of VR a potential ethical concern. This research examined the extent that adults with ASD from a day program felt symptoms of cybersickness while undergoing sessions of a VR-training program. The nature of learner experiences while using HMD were also explored. Research questions were addressed through multi-method procedures that utilized quantitative and qualitative data. Despite the presence of some cybersickness symptoms, participants found the experiences to be positive and acceptable.

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  1. School of Information Science and Learning Technologies, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA

    Noah Glaser

  2. School of Teaching and Learning, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA

    Matthew Schmidt & Carla Schmidt

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Glaser, N., Schmidt, M. & Schmidt, C. Learner experience and evidence of cybersickness: design tensions in a virtual reality public transportation intervention for autistic adults. Virtual Reality 26, 1705–1724 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-022-00661-3

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