Make Room for VR: Constructing Domestic Space and Accessibility in Virtual Reality Headset Tutorials

Abstract

This article analyzes how the Meta Quest virtual reality headset’s implementation requires one’s domestic space to be rearranged to accommodate for its use. Analyzing tutorials, help videos, and advertisements for Quest, we demonstrate how its production of space relies on classist and ableist biases which presume easy access to an open play grid and user mobility. We additionally draw from user-generated videos on YouTube which show additional ways “VR rooms” are tied to socioeconomic status as well as videos which are focused on making VR more accessible for users with mobility or neurocognitive differences. We situate these videos within media studies research on emergent technologies’ domestication, and how the process of “making space for” and accommodating emergent media technology continues to rely on assumptions about the identities of normal and ideal users.