Supporting Sound Accessibility by Exploring Sound Augmentations in Virtual Reality

To increase VR sound accessibility for deaf and hard of hearing users, previous work has substituted sounds with visual or haptic feedback. However, many DHH people (e.g., those with partial hearing) can also benefit from modifying audio (e.g., changing volume based on priorities) instead of fully substituting it with another modality. In this demo paper, we present a toolkit that allows modifying sounds in VR to support DHH people. We designed and implemented 18 VR sound modification tools spanning four categories, including prioritizing sounds, modifying sound parameters, providing spatial assistance, and adding additional sounds. We present five demo scenarios with tools incorporated, covering common VR use cases.