Effects of Cyberattacks on Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Technologies for People with Disabilities

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies offer transformative solutions for individuals with disabilities, empowering them with enhanced accessibility and immersive experiences. The importance of VR and AR for accessibility provides assistive solutions for disabled users through accessibility enhancements, personalized assistive technologies to support education, rehabilitation support, and social inclusion and empathy building. However, limitations and security challenges are inherent in the current integration of VR and AR. That includes inadequate authentication, insecure communication channels, software errors, device incompatibilities, keystroke errors on controllers, poor network speed, and cyberattacks, potentially jeopardising vulnerable users' safety and well-being. The paper explores the impact of cyberattacks on VR and AR technologies for disabled users. The novelty contribution of the paper is threefold. First, we analyze existing VR and AR technologies and their immersive environments, including their vulnerabilities. Secondly, we consider the various cyberattacks being deployed to exploit the vulnerabilities in the settings and their impact on users with disabilities. Finally, we implement an attack to exploit a vulnerability in the AR and VR environment to determine security and recommend control mechanisms. The paper raises awareness of the importance of securing VR and AR to safeguard the inclusivity and independence of disabled users.