Squishy's thoughts on Virtual Reality (from someone with a visual impairment)

Two days ago I went on a school trip to a university to look at some Computer Science related courses. I saw a variety of futuristic things from 3D printers to Drones and even a Street Fighter II arcade machine (not really futuristic but still cool).

The highlight of the event was that they had Virtual Reality (I'll be calling it VR for convenience) set up and free to play. Of course I tried it out since they are so expensive and require a lot of space. So here are my thoughts on using VR for the first time.

(Keep in mind that I'm reviewing this based on the accessibility and usage, plus based on my experience. I have a severe visual impairment which will mean that your experience will probably be different)

First is putting the headset on and figuring out the controls. I was told to take my glasses off (obviously). At first I thought this would leave me blind and just flapping my arms around trying to shoot Zombies. Plus I can only really use one eye so I wasn't sure how this would actually work without a balance. But when I put it on...

I could see!!!

It was so weird. I normally need glasses to partially improve my vision, but the headset was allowing me to see what I could usually see with glasses, WITHOUT glasses. It was an awesome experience! I did feel a slight heat in my eyes while wearing it but it didn't affect anything really.

Back to the gaming side of things. The game I played was called "Zombies" so I had two gun shaped controllers in my hand and it was my job to shoot them to death without dying myself. The hand and arm movements were very good and worked like real body movements. That includes when I tilt my head. I was too scared to move around at first in case the headset flew off, but it didn't.

The only problem I had with the game was the size of the gun controllers. The guns felt like they were made for people with large hands. My hands are quite small so I found myself having to hold the gun weird to reload, which did hinder my experience.

Overall, My first VR experience was one that I will always remember. I never cared for it at first because of the price and the process of setting it up. But I'm really glad that I chose this over trying out a Segway,

I'm going to end this with a random photo of this beauty. Thanks for reading!