Sense of Presence

The subjective feeling of "being there" in a virtual environment, encompassing spatial presence (feeling physically located in the virtual space), involvement (attention directed at the virtual world), and experienced realism (how lifelike the environment feels). Sense of presence is a key measure in VR accessibility research because it indicates whether BLV users can meaningfully engage with virtual environments beyond mere task completion. Research shows that BLV users can achieve strong spatial presence through non-visual cues like spatial audio, haptic feedback, and touch-based exploration.