Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Does the future of ER include blind people? (self.Blind)
submitted by JustSomeBlindGuy
Any other blind folk have an oculus quest? Anyone else tired of the menu disappearing whenever you try to get close to it?
For those who don’t know, The quest has two different types of menu. There’s the main navigation bar where the library, settings, and social pages are. But there’s also the much larger menu pain where the store, search, and explore pages are. For both menus, whenever you try to get close to them, they disappear. This makes things, especially text, extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to read. This is of course completely unnecessary, as it doesn’t happen with the Oculus home menus on PC, and in some cases, on quest, you can actually get closer to the menu without it disappearing.
So this raises a few questions. Is Meta just screwing with us, do they even care about people with visual disabilities? Is VR really the future of gaming, and if so, will blind people be included or excluded? And most importantly, what can we do about it?
I doubt anything will come of it, but you never know, but if you’re having the same issue, let the folks at Meta know how dumb this is. At the very least, it might spread some awareness, because at the moment, absolutely nobody seems to be considering visual accessibility in VR.
For those who don’t know, The quest has two different types of menu. There’s the main navigation bar where the library, settings, and social pages are. But there’s also the much larger menu pain where the store, search, and explore pages are. For both menus, whenever you try to get close to them, they disappear. This makes things, especially text, extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to read. This is of course completely unnecessary, as it doesn’t happen with the Oculus home menus on PC, and in some cases, on quest, you can actually get closer to the menu without it disappearing.
So this raises a few questions. Is Meta just screwing with us, do they even care about people with visual disabilities? Is VR really the future of gaming, and if so, will blind people be included or excluded? And most importantly, what can we do about it?
I doubt anything will come of it, but you never know, but if you’re having the same issue, let the folks at Meta know how dumb this is. At the very least, it might spread some awareness, because at the moment, absolutely nobody seems to be considering visual accessibility in VR.
akrazyho 4 points 1y ago
Standard VR has no place in the blind community. The majority of the point of it is to see things like you are there but if you’re blind you can’t really see any of that so there’s no point in it.
The issue you’re having has more to do with the developers and the way your hit box for your camera is interfering with the polygons on screen in essence the polygon that renders the menus. Dating way back to the N64 days in the PlayStation one days if you get too close to a polygon you’ll just clip the camera through it and that’s what you’re experiencing your defeat the polygon itself and it won’t render the texture on the polygon whether it’s a wall or in your case a menu. Again this is a problem with the hit box and just it not interfacing with the polygon that is the menu itself so the developers have to fix it so you don’t click through the menu. This has everything to do with the software and play nothing to do with the hardware itself
The issue you’re having has more to do with the developers and the way your hit box for your camera is interfering with the polygons on screen in essence the polygon that renders the menus. Dating way back to the N64 days in the PlayStation one days if you get too close to a polygon you’ll just clip the camera through it and that’s what you’re experiencing your defeat the polygon itself and it won’t render the texture on the polygon whether it’s a wall or in your case a menu. Again this is a problem with the hit box and just it not interfacing with the polygon that is the menu itself so the developers have to fix it so you don’t click through the menu. This has everything to do with the software and play nothing to do with the hardware itself
SightlessKombat 2 points 1y ago
I would personally disagree that VR has no point as a "blind person".
As someone without sight (having never had any sight whatsoever), I definitely appreciate the auditory, haptic and motion-based implications of the medium. I just feel that developers haven't realised that, as I put it once, the V in VR stands for virtual, not visual.
If we overcome that barrier, then we'll see what happens.
As someone without sight (having never had any sight whatsoever), I definitely appreciate the auditory, haptic and motion-based implications of the medium. I just feel that developers haven't realised that, as I put it once, the V in VR stands for virtual, not visual.
If we overcome that barrier, then we'll see what happens.
akrazyho 2 points 1y ago
OK I’ve very partially agree but keep in mind that we’ve had surroundsound and headphones since the early 80s. It’s to the point now or it’s almost a gimmick every single major brand wants to sell you a license for surroundsound on your headphones even if they like a proper sounds stage. Sorry I don’t even know what it’s called but even Apple is pushing their simulator surroundsound in their head tracking technology with their newer high-end headphones. It’s a silly trend and we were getting great simulated surroundsound through Doe B headphones and just headphones with great soundstages before all of this. Trust me I can go on and on and on but I already realize I’m on a rant.
I think the point I’m trying to make is the headset part of VR technology is practically pointless for us The blind community. Nowadays there is zero difference between using your AirPods and using a VR headset to experience that walking through the woods video that has such a great sound mix in it.
I think the point I’m trying to make is the headset part of VR technology is practically pointless for us The blind community. Nowadays there is zero difference between using your AirPods and using a VR headset to experience that walking through the woods video that has such a great sound mix in it.
JustSomeBlindGuy [OP] 1 points 1y ago
I agree, VR doesn’t really have a place in the fully blind community, but neither does console, Mobile, or PC gaming. This was more targeted toward partially sighted people like myself. They’re actually quite a bit more visually impaired people playing VR then you would assume. From people who only have really crappy vision in only one eye, to people who are technically legally blind when they take their glasses off. We’re definitely a minority, but we exist.
As far as it being a software and not a hardware issue, you are correct, though I never meant to imply that it was a hardware issue. I fully understand what’s happening here, I run into it all the time when I’m reviewing games. In most cases they put the occlusion plane too far forward, so even if you’re not inside of the game object, it starts clipping anyway.
This isn’t the case with the oculus quest menus though. I guess I could’ve explained better, but the menu don’t actually disappear when you get inside of them. For whatever reason, the folks at meta decided to make the menus blank out and turn white when you get about a foot away from them.
As far as it being a software and not a hardware issue, you are correct, though I never meant to imply that it was a hardware issue. I fully understand what’s happening here, I run into it all the time when I’m reviewing games. In most cases they put the occlusion plane too far forward, so even if you’re not inside of the game object, it starts clipping anyway.
This isn’t the case with the oculus quest menus though. I guess I could’ve explained better, but the menu don’t actually disappear when you get inside of them. For whatever reason, the folks at meta decided to make the menus blank out and turn white when you get about a foot away from them.
SightlessKombat 2 points 1y ago
As I said to a different commenter in this thread, I disagree that VR doesn't have a place to those who have no sight whatsoever, including myself. It just takes care, understanding and realisation, as well as playing attention to the title of the medium (Virtual Reality, not Visual Reality as some might see it as) to then move forward and develop games that fully utilise its capabilities.
[deleted] 4 points 1y ago
[deleted]
JustSomeBlindGuy [OP] -4 points 1y ago
Couple of things…
VR is currently $1 billion industry, with growing numbers every day. Steam on average reports over 100 million VR users, spread over a mix of all kinds of headsets, and the oculus quest 2 has sold over 10 million units. So not a flop. And while it’s true the stock for meta-dipped pretty dramatically last month, they’re already on the rise again.
As far as not supporting Facebook, or Meta, as they are now called… what device are you using to browse this page, Android, iPhone, some other extravagant computer that you built yourself that has all the RGB? Newsflash, all the companies are evil. It doesn’t make what they do OK, but if they’re going to be evil, and we’re going to have to live with it, then they should at least be inclusive. Lol
VR is currently $1 billion industry, with growing numbers every day. Steam on average reports over 100 million VR users, spread over a mix of all kinds of headsets, and the oculus quest 2 has sold over 10 million units. So not a flop. And while it’s true the stock for meta-dipped pretty dramatically last month, they’re already on the rise again.
As far as not supporting Facebook, or Meta, as they are now called… what device are you using to browse this page, Android, iPhone, some other extravagant computer that you built yourself that has all the RGB? Newsflash, all the companies are evil. It doesn’t make what they do OK, but if they’re going to be evil, and we’re going to have to live with it, then they should at least be inclusive. Lol
TechnicalPragmatist 2 points 1y ago
It’s just not going to be accessible period.
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