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Government & Public Sector case studies

Local government is where PTR's disability-awareness work started, and Central Coast Council remains the clearest example of a public-sector partner using VR to shift a whole community's understanding, not just its own staff's. Rather than an internal training tool alone, the Council has kept the experience in repeated use across schools, its own teams and outside research partners.

First-person view of two hands wearing a VR headset's motion-tracked view inside a bright home living space.

Central Coast Council: Raising awareness of disability

Central Coast Council developed VR as part of its wider strategy to improve disability access and inclusion, particularly in business, sport and recreation settings, aiming to build empathy and a better understanding of what people with a disability face in everyday scenarios. Co-designed with the Council's own Access and Inclusion Reference Group, the experience gives participants a first-person perspective of navigating a beach and a shopping centre with a disability, then reflecting on the barriers each presents.

A VR shopping-centre electronics store scene, with an avatar standing among laptop and screen displays, from the Central Coast Council disability-awareness experience.
The shopping-centre scene from the Council's VR disability-awareness experience.

It has since been delivered more than 200 times across the community, and has been incorporated into teacher training programs, internal council staff training and CSIRO facilitated sessions.

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Also from the PTR VR Library

  • VR Library - Built and ready to explore. A growing collection of immersive VR experiences designed for leadership, learning and social impact.
  • Finding Common Ground - Based on a real incident. A two part experience about discrimination in a customer facing workplace, and what a team is expected to do about it.

Browse the full VR Library

See also Government & Public Sector in Our Work's industries pages, and Aged Care & Disability, where this same case study also appears.