JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

For individuals with an acquired communication disorder, it can be challenging to transfer the skills learned within therapy sessions to real-world environments. The immersive VR has the potential to create sufficiently realistic communication environments that could be used within the clinic and home practice setting for individuals with communication disorders.

Objective:

This research aims to enhance our understanding of the acceptance, usefulness, and usability of immersive Virtual Reality (VR) applications designed for communication rehabilitation. Additionally, this research aims to determine the perceived barriers and benefits to engagement with this VR technology from the perspective of individuals with acquired communication disorders.

Methods:

A mixed-methods approach was utilised for the study. Ten individuals with acquired neurogenic communication disorder aged 46-81 years (M = 58, SD = 9.57) completed system usability surveys and semi-structured interviews after trialling an immersive VR application.

Results:

Quantitative measures of system usability, mental workload, and motion sickness associated with participants’ immersion experience in the VR application were promising. Findings from semi-structured interviews are discussed across five key thematic areas including (i) attitude towards VR, (ii) perceived usefulness of VR system, (iii) perceived ease of use of VR system, (iv) intention to use VR, and (v) perceived adoption barriers and enablers.

Conclusions:

Overall, participants in the current study found the VR experience to be enjoyable and were impressed by the realism of the VR application designed for communication rehabilitation. This study highlighted personally relevant, immersive VR interventions with different levels of task difficulty could enhance technology uptake in the context of rehabilitation. However, it is essential that VR hand controller technology is refined to be more naturalistic in movement and able to accommodate user capabilities.