ISPRS-Archives The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences ISPRS-Archives Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci. 2194-9034 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-2-W11-929-2019 IMPACT OF VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIENCE ON ACCESSIBILITY OF CULTURAL HERITAGE Paladini A. 1 Dhanda A. 2 Reina Ortiz M. 2 Weigert A. 2 Nofal E. 3 4 Min A. 5 Gyi M. 6 Su S. 6 Van Balen K. 1 Santana Quintero M. 2 Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation (RLICC), KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 1, 3001 Leuven, Belgium Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS), Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada Research[x]Design, Department of Architecture, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 1, 3001 Leuven, Belgium Department of Architecture, Assiut University, 71516 Assiut, Egypt Department of Archaeology and National Museum, Bagan, Myanmar Mandalay Technological University, Mandalay, Myanmar 05 05 2019 XLII-2/W11 929 936 Copyright: © 2019 A. Paladini et al. 2019 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This article is available from https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLII-2-W11/929/2019/isprs-archives-XLII-2-W11-929-2019.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLII-2-W11/929/2019/isprs-archives-XLII-2-W11-929-2019.pdf

<p>Accessibility plays a main role among the aspects that contribute to the conservation of Cultural Heritage sites. Seismic stability, fragility of the artefacts, conflicts, deterioration, natural disasters, climate change and visitors’ impact are only some of the possible causes that might lead to the inaccessibility of a heritage site for both researchers and visitors.</p><p>The increasing potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the conservation field has resulted in the development of Augmented and Virtual reality (AR and VR) experiences. These ones can be very effective for what concerns the description of the visual experience, but also improve the understanding of a site and even became analytic research tools.</p><p>This paper presents an inaccessible Buddhist temple in the Myanmar city of Bagan as a case study for the realization of a VR experience that aims at providing accessibility to knowledge and therefore a better understanding of the cultural value. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the VR for this purpose, a user study has been conducted and its results are reported.</p>