Empowering Accessible Social Engagement in Virtual Reality: Piloting a preparatory Usability Experience on Neurotypical Individuals

Nowadays, Immersive Virtual Reality offers significant opportunities to personalize medical treatments and training protocols. In this work, we present an immersive VR application (EASE VR) to support medical staff of neurodivergent people in experimenting with challenging situations in a safe and controlled environment. Before to evaluate the benefits of this application on a clinical population, we aim to validate the EASE VR system by assessing its usability and acceptance among neurotypical individuals. The evaluation protocol involves 18 participants, and it includes three phases: an ex-ante test, experimentation, and an ex-post test. Participants completed three VR tasks, and their responses were assessed using the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ), System Usability Scale (SUS), and User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ). Results show that the system achieved high usability ratings (SUS: 78.1 max) and strong user engagement (UEQ: perspicuity, attractiveness, stimulation). However, efficiency and dependability were lower in complex scenarios. SSQ results indicate minimal cybersickness, with only slight increases in disorientation in high-complexity conditions. These findings suggest that EASE VR provides an effective and engaging training platform for experimenting with urban navigation and social interaction. Further studies involving neurodivergent participants are already planned to validate the personalization process and optimize scenario configurations.