The recent explosion of immersive media technologies, like Virtual Reality (VR) and 360° video, opens the door to new fascinating opportunities and revenue models, not only in the entertainment sector, but also in other key sectors of society, like education and culture. The paper concludes by discussing how the newly developed player has gone above and beyond the existing solutions and guidelines, by providing accessibility features that meet the expectations for a widely used immersive medium, like 360° video. The in-depth analysis has been part of a research effort towards the development of a fully inclusive and accessible 360° video player.

These features have been chosen based on guidelines from standardization contributions, like in the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the International Communication Union (ITU), and from research contributions for making 360° video consumption experiences accessible. This paper surveys a wide range of 360 o video players and examines the features they include for dealing with accessibility, such as Subtitles, Audio Description, Sign Language, User Interfaces and other interaction features, like voice control and support for multi-screen scenarios. However, until recently the focus has been mostly on adapting the existing techniques to fit immersive displays, rather than considering new approaches for accessibility designed specifically for these increasingly relevant media experiences. With the current trend towards immersive experiences, such as Virtual Reality (VR) and 360 o video, it becomes key that these environments are adapted to be fully accessible.

Accessibility is a key requirement for any multimedia tool and application.

Gopro vr player supported file types