Early social media videos featuring Apple Vision Pro users trying out the new virtual reality headset show that early adopters seem to be primarily male and white, inciting questions about how the technology works for people of color, women and other marginalized groups. Wearable technology has a history of race and gender problems, writes USA Today contributor Nicole Fallert, and the Apple Vision Pro could face issues with public safety, wearability and usability.
“They have a very narrow user in mind for this technology at this time,” said Kishonna Gray, an associate professor at the University of Kentucky, adding that masculinity is the “standard operating system” in tech design. She notes the lack of infrastructure in parts of the country that would render the VR headshot unusable, a concern that women and minorities may not be safe while using the technology in public and the wearability of a 23-ounce headset for users with dreads, braids, hair weaves or other diverse hairstyles.
Gray adds that she sees the launch of the Apple Vision Pro as part of a pattern from Apple’s previous hardware debuts, and believes Apple is waiting to see response from initial users before expanding the headset’s development for a broader public use case.
“At the ideation stage, we have a very small subset of the population making decisions that will impact all of us,” Gray said. “If you don’t have women in that conversation and other groups, you’re not going to think about what that full range of experiences could be.”
