For those who are living with disabilities, the world can often be an overwhelming place, it can even be a challenge just to navigate everyday life. In recent years, society has made a greater effort to ease the disabled into accomplishing most tasks to give them a sense of independence and freedom. One technology which has made headway in providing support to those in need has been virtual reality.

One of our aims is to connect organisations who are looking to drastically improve the lives of people with disabilities with immersive experiences that are proven to bring about positive change.

Immersive technologies for disabilities include:

• 360 Video for Disabilities
• Mobile Augmented Reality for Disabilities
• Hololens Augmented Reality for Disabilities
• HTC Vive Virtual Reality for Disabilities
• Oculus Rift Virtual Reality for Disabilities
• Oculus Go Virtual Reality for Disabilities

Immerse Enterprise, in collaboration with NDIS partners, has been a leader in providing virtual reality experiences for people with disabilities. This has had a profound effect on many lives from people who suffer from learning difficulties taking new found control over their lives, to those who are vision impaired experiencing 20/20 vision for the first time in years.

Example applications of this technology include:

• Social skills development using virtual avatars and simulated social interactions
• Workplace skills development through virtual working environments which would be suitable for individuals to transition to following their training
• Simulated scenarios which would normally be challenging for an individual with disabilities, allowing them to gain exposure to the task and grow more comfortable performing it
• Physical activities which have been converted to virtual reality experiences, which would otherwise be out of reach for a disabled person such as rock climbing, swimming in the ocean or other physically challenging activities
• Augmented Reality applications which could provide instructions for a mentally disabled person to navigate a particular environment such as a shopping center, central business district or public transport
• Virtual physical therapy to assist in recovery by improving motor skills and activating areas of the brain associated with that movement
• Simulated experiences of how people living with certain mental disabilities might experience the world to empathise with those who are suffering from those disabilities.

There is no question that virtual reality has the ability to greatly improve the lives of not just societies most agile people but also those who are faced with challenges in everyday life due to disabilities. We are only just scratching the surface of what is possible and would love to work with you in developing impactful experiences for this industry.