Exploring the potential of Virtual Reality to convey information about architectural barriers and solutions: A Case Study of the KIT Campus

Virtual Reality (VR) is an effective tool that, thanks to its flexibility, can be used for educational purposes in a wide variety of applications. In the context of sensitisation about architectural barriers, VR is often used to simulate the feeling of being disabled which can result in the confirmation of stereotypes. An alternative approach could be to convey information about accessibility issues focusing on possible solutions to create universally accessible environments. This study investigates the effect different ways of communicating architectural barriers in Virtual Reality (VR) have on the player’s interest, comprehension, and reflective process. With the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology campus serving as a case study, I created a virtual replica of its cafeteria building. The environment can be navigated during a simulation where different architectural barriers and solutions are displayed and explained. Two representations of the accessibility issues are compared, analysing the effects of visual embellishments and sober textual explanations on the user’s perception of architectural barriers. Expert feedback on the developed prototype was collected and analysed with the Thematic Analysis (TA) method to evaluate and compare the barriers representations. The final findings highlight how the embellishments and explanations contribute to the player’s curiosity, focus, comprehension, and reflection, drawing design recommendations for future applications in a similar context.