# Virtual Reality in Museums: Exploring the Experiences of Museum Professionals
## 5 Perceived Advantages and Challenges of Using VR Technologies
### Perceived Challenges and Limitations
And that's how you can make it feel authentic and not just like something that's stuck in a corner that you can have a go at if you like, but nobody really cares\"._  
Another challenge is the required expertise needed to implement VR projects (mentioned by 5 interviewees). As stressed by some interviewees, many museum professionals do not have the expertise on developing such projects and special training is needed on how to handle or troubleshoot the equipment. Such training may be extensive since the VR used should be integrated in the overall curatorial approach of the museum, its promotional activities and be designed with the guidance of curators. Interviewee 7 explains this challenge: \"The real challenge has been the inclusion of the activities inside the cultural offer of the museum: The involvement of the curators, the training of scientific explainers, the design of the promotional activities, and the commercial offer\". This also relates to the issue of finances and the overall cost of VR, which is one of the most pressing problems faced by 8 interviewees. In many cases the overall cost is prohibitive, while others find it very hard to adopt VR on a permanent basis due to the budget limitations they have. The issue of cost includes the initial equipment required, the extra staffing needs for developing and handling the VR, and the costs of repair and maintenance. Especially the operational burden created by the extra staffing needs is a big challenge in many cases. Thus, in most cases, VR is used for temporary exhibitions since the cost of maintaining VR on a permanent basis is prohibitive. In order to overcome this challenge, many museums collaborated with companies and developers that provided the equipment. In seven cases, temporary exhibitions including VR were developed after the museum was approached by a company who wanted to test the equipment in a museum environment. This also explains why VR is mostly used on a temporary basis, since many museums rely on external collaborations with technology companies that can provide the hardware due to the high cost. Nevertheless, as discussed in Section 6.2 some of these museums found many creative, innovative ways to overcome some of these challenges and incorporate VR. Although various aspects of accessibility were amongst the identified advantages, some other aspects of accessibility pose serious limitations for museums (emphasized by five interviewees). As noted by interviewee 8, VR is not friendly to users with disabilities such as blind or deaf users. Thus, people with disabilities may end up having an impoverished experience, especially if the VR replaces other means of interpretation. Furthermore, four participants stressed the difficulties they face due to the age restrictions on the use of VR by children, since \"there has been some debate about the age that a person has to be to use the equipment, with differing advice\" (Interviewee 5), which causes confusion to many museum professionals. In most cases, the common recommendation of some manufacturers is for VR not to be used by children under 12 [32]. However, as interviewee 16 puts it, this means \"that if you are a museum that is encouraging families to visit, you are potentially excluding a large proportion of your audience\". These age restrictions may cause frustration in small children for not being able to use a headset that is available to the rest of the visitors. As interviewee 16 explains, \"you have to manage their expectations, because if a 12-year-old sees that there is a headset in the gallery and they want to have a go and they are told that they can't--that's not a brilliant experience for them\". Museum professionals also often face other more practical but equally important issues when using VR (stressed by 5 interviewees). The issue of hygiene came up very often in the interviews, since all necessary equipment requires regular cleaning due to the large number of users per day.