Inclusion by Design: Virtual Reality Integration in Technology Education

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"What if you could see the world through the eyes of someone very different from you?"

I’m Ruchi Sembey, a PhD researcher at Monash University, and my work uses Virtual Reality simulations to give people a first-person perspective - like a person with dementia navigating a city or managing sensory overload as a neurodivergent person.

After 10 years of teaching future technology designers, I saw a clear disconnect: students were creating systems for people whose realities they had never felt. 

And that’s not surprising - direct access to older adults or people with disabilities can be often impractical or ethically complex. 

The result? Technology that too often misses the mark and I wanted to change that!

In my research, students step into a VR headset and experience real-world challenges end-users face before creating solutions for them. 

Let’s be clear - VR is not a replacement for lived experience but it is a powerful complement. In our approach, VR isn't a gimmick - it's a tool to spark empathy, challenge assumptions, and prepare students to design with humility. 

Teachers are central to this change so we work directly with educators and industry experts through design workshops, case study and interviews to build capability and create a framework to make VR usable in real classrooms, moving beyond the myth that VR’s just for gaming.

So far, this work has reached over 1,200 students and 25 educators, and our findings help shape policy and best practice to use emerging technologies responsibly.

At its core, my work shapes technology designers who build for REAL people. When we design with empathy, we don’t just create better tech - we create a better world.