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Updated: Aug 25, 2025
Development of a Virtual Reality Assessment of Everyday Living Skills
Published on: April 23, 2014
Virtual reality to foster empathy in disability workers: A feasibility study during COVID-19
Clare Wilding1, Kimberleigh Young1, Caroline Cummins2
1John Richards Centre for Rural Ageing Research, La Trobe Rural Health School, La Trobe University, Wodonga, Victoria, Australia.
Background:
Empathy is a critical skill required by disability workers. Virtual reality may increase access to staff training to foster empathy.
Method:
A mixed methods feasibility study investigated a custom-built virtual reality program, IMercyVE, which aimed to immerse a disability worker in a first-person perspective of having intellectual disability. Data were collected through online surveys (n = 9) completed before and after use of IMercyVE, and by videoconference focus groups (n = 6).
Results:
Qualitative findings included that IMercyVE delivered a novel experience for participants and a distinctive mode of learning that assisted participants to deepen their levels of empathy. Descriptive analyses of the surveys indicated that participants' empathy increased after engaging with IMercyVE.
Conclusions:
IMercyVE has the potential to be offered as a remotely delivered and flexible staff training modality suitable for building empathy. Further research with a larger sample is warranted.
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02:34Empathy
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