Exploring Stakeholder Experiences With Virtual Reality-Based Vocational Training for Adults With IDD

Virtual reality (VR) is a promising tool for vocational training for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), offering immersive workplace simulations. However, little is known about how key stakeholders, adults with IDD, job coaches, and employers, experience and evaluate VR-based training programs. This study explored cross-stakeholder perspectives on a custom VR library job simulation designed to teach employment skills to adults with IDD. The VR application replicated a real-world library environment in which participants shelved books guided by directional cues, audio prompts, and positive reinforcement. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 adults with IDD, 5 job coaches, and 6 employers. Data were analyzed using an inductive thematic approach involving open coding, axial coding, and cross-stakeholder comparative synthesis. Five themes emerged: (1) environmental realism as a foundational affordance, (2) usability constraints and the absence of error recovery, (3) affective engagement independent of task success, (4) limited transfer without explicit instructional scaffolding, and (5) accessibility and safety as implementation prerequisites. The study’s novel contribution lies in its cross-stakeholder synthesis, which reveals how convergent and divergent perspectives across user groups illuminate the conditions necessary for VR to function as an effective vocational training tool. The findings show that while VR holds genuine promise for workforce preparation, its potential can only be realized through systematic refinement grounded in the perspectives of those who use, facilitate, and benefit from it.