![]() ![]() ![]() Owlchemy Labs told me that they didn’t do any user testing with any blind users for these features, and in my brief testing these accessibility features felt much more optimized for low-vision users than for folks who are blind. On March 23, 2023, Owlchemy Labs announced their first-of-a-kind VR features for low-vision users that included a vision assistance mode with high contrast object highlighting, haptic feedback for object selection and teleporting, cancelable audio of audio description, grab and release confirmation of objects, and audio descriptions of objects, environments, areas, and tutorials. Owlchemy Labs’ next title of Cosmonious High launched on March 31, 2022, and then later shipped their first accessibility update on Jthat featured One-Handed Mode, Play Seated, Enhanced Object Interactions, Tutorials, and More Icons. ![]() Step away from the speaker and they’ll enlarge turn your back and icons ensure you know exactly who’s saying what.” Transparency helps keep them unobtrusive and integrated into the world, while high contrast ensures they’re legible no matter what you’re looking at. No matter where you look, the subtitles are always visible and can help guide you back to the speaker. After a boat load of research, prototyping, and user feedback, our subtitle system defines a new standard for VR… Our subtitles are both functional and playful. Owlchemy Labs announced their subtitle update for Vacation Simulator on Octosaying, “The elements of space and presence in virtual reality added a whole new dimension to the challenge that demanded we tackle things with a fresh perspective. ![]() We now fully support one handed play for 100 percent of the game!” Owlchemy Labs announced a one-handed mode in Vacation Simulator on Jsaying, “We strive to create interactions that feel natural, and we understand that not all players may not be able to use two arms simultaneously. We also, at that time, we didn’t necessarily realize we were making some accessibility features, but to combat things like the screen door effect that was present on a lot of headsets at the time, it was important that we made our text large and clear.” We understood that VR is a very physical medium, so we had to make considerations for the different physicalities that people have. And that was sort of our first foray into this. Owlchemy Lab’s senior accessibility engineer Galbraith told me in this interview, “It allowed players who were shorter or seated to reach things that were higher up. We’ve delivered!” This allowed kids to play the game, but also had a number of accessibility implications for folks who not able to stand up. Owlchemy Labs shipped a Smaller Human mode to Job Simulator on saying, “We’ve received a ton of requests from some of the less vertically-gifted players to build in a way to reach all of the areas of Job Simulator that may have been previously out of reach. They were at XR Access Symposium showing off their pioneering work on low-vision VR features for Cosmonious High launched last March, and I had a chance to sit down with their Accessibility Product Manager Jazmin Cano and Senior Accessibility Engineer Peter Galbraith to unpack their journey into XR Accessibility since 2016, and some of their key innovations along the way as well as a deep dive into their low-vision VR features. starting with Job Simulator, and then following up with key accessibility features for Vacation Simulator, and Cosmonious High. Owlchemy Labs has been on the leading edge of accessible VR game design since 2016. ![]()
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