Immersive Storytelling and Emotion Promotion: VR 360° Video of Accessibility in Toronto

VR 360° videos are an emerging technology and perspective-taking medium which offers the audience an immersive experience in virtual reality environments. This Major Research Project (MRP) aims to investigate the effectiveness of VR as a medium to communicate social issues and how it promotes prosocial behaviours and emotions to the public. This project's artifact is an immersive VR 360° video that allows a more neutral perception of disability and portrays physically disabled people and wheelchair users living in Toronto. In addition, this project describes the production process, conceptualization decisions, technical challenges, and lessons learned. Post-experience feedback provided by the audience showed that the video prototype accomplished its aim. Besides, the responses were positive, although some aspects could be improved, and further studies should be conducted in future work. Wheelchair Perspective VR Journey is a 9-minute VR 360° video that can be viewed by mobile devices and head-mounted displays (HMD). The video intends to help the audience better understand the social topic of accessibility in Toronto and potentially promote their emotions and sense of responsibility towards this social cause.