Virtual reality as a tool supporting self-motivated training for disability support workers

Objectives Disability support workers play a critical role in supporting people living with disabilities, but may have limited formal training as time, resources, and funding constraints can make access to training difficult for this workforce. To prepare them for challenging work situations, virtual reality (VR) offers a safe, self-paced, and practice-based way to do self-motivated training to learn and practice relevant workplace skills. The aim of this study was to identify those aspects of a VR training experience that engages disability support workers, motivating them to choose it to build the skills and capabilities needed when working with individuals with disability who require positive behavior support (PBS). Methods To understand what creates an engaging user experience for disability support workers, we studied two virtual learning environments in use, both designed to teach PBS skills, with 21 health industry students and 29 employed disability support workers. Observations, a survey, and structured interviews were used to measure user experience and collect user perceptions. Results Analysis of collected data identified four key aspects affecting user experience in virtual learning environments for this particular cohort, narrative, environment, interaction, and immersion, finding that narrative, both relevance of the storyline and empathy with the virtual character, was key to engaging disability support workers in the VR training. Conclusions VR can be an effective tool for motivating disability support workers to do personal training if it is designed so that they find the virtual client engaging and the storyline meaningful and relevant to their workplace experiences.