People used to say that computers would never catch on. Too big, too expensive, too clumsy. Now everyone has a smartphone in their pocket.

For many people, VR is still something of a novelty, at least until they try it. But the moment you put on a headset, it usually becomes a question of when you will get one, not whether you want one.

Until recently, VR was restricted mostly to commercial use, because businesses were more able to afford the expensive headsets and even more expensive computers required to drive them. The general public’s interest in VR was limited, and therefore the number of games designed for VR was limited too.

All that changed with the release of the Oculus (now Meta) Quest. A good quality headset for about the price of a games console, with no need for a computer to make it work, and a vast and growing choice of games to download and play in minutes.

Affordable, comfortable and easy to use, it has set the whole VR phenomenon alight, outselling the PS5 and Xbox on Amazon over Christmas 2021.

But this is just the start. As interest grows, new headsets are being released, new games are being created, new technologies are improving performance.

In time, it’s likely that we’ll be using VR to operate our computers, to work, to socialise, to create, to play.

For now, we’ll settle for making a difference to the lives of autistic people.