NSF Convergence Accelerator Track H: Making Virtual Reality Meetings Accessible to Knowledge Workers with Visual Impairments

虚拟现实(VR)有望在未来几年成为一项广泛使用的技术，但视觉障碍者完全无法访问它。VR的主要优势之一是，它模拟了现实生活中的互动，人们走来走去，使用自然的非语言行为相互交谈。与此同时，由于新冠病毒-19大流行，远程工作已变得司空见惯。雇主、研究人员和员工都表达了对虚拟现实工作场所的需求，在那里他们可以更容易地集思广益，与他人进行讨论。然而，尽管研究人员和实践者提出了一些提高虚拟现实可达性的方法，但还没有人探索如何使虚拟现实中的人际交流更容易进行。虽然盲人可以听到某人说话，但她错过了接近、手势(挥手、点头)和凝视等言语暗示。这项建议旨在研究如何使这些非语言提示能够被获取，以提高VR的整体可及性，以支持视力障碍的知识工作者。该项目的总体目标是制定以用户为中心的、以证据为基础的指南，规定如何使视觉障碍的知识工作者能够获得VR。调查人员将把重点放在远程工作用例上，其中人际交流和可访问的共享材料发挥着核心作用。遵循以用户为中心的设计，他们将与有视觉障碍的知识工作者组成重点小组，以确定关键用例和需求。然后，他们将设计低保真的原型，以探索可访问的功能。他们将与目标用户一起评估这些原型，并制定一套初步的指导方针。如果在第二阶段，他们将在初始原型上迭代，并在对照研究中严格评估它们。此外，他们将改进指南，并努力将其纳入现有的可访问性标准。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Virtual reality (VR) promises to be a widespread technology in the coming years, but it iscompletely inaccessible to people with visual impairments. One of the main advantages of VR isthat it emulates real-life interactions where people walk around and talk to one another usingnaturalistic nonverbal behavior. Meanwhile, remote work has become commonplace due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. Employers, researchers, and workers alike are expressing the need forVR workplaces, where they can more easily brainstorm and hold discussions with others.However, while researchers and practitioners have proposed some methods for improving VRaccessibility, no one has explored how interpersonal communication in VR can be made moreaccessible. While a blind person can hear someone speak, she misses out on onverbal cueslike proximity, gestures (waves, nods), and gaze. This proposal aims to investigate how suchnonverbal cues can be made accessible to improve the overall accessibility of VR to supportknowledge workers with visual impairments.The overarching goal of the project is to develop user-centered, evidence-based guidelines thatstipulate how VR can be made accessible to knowledge workers with visual impairments. Theinvestigators will focus on remote work use cases, where interpersonal communication andaccessible shared materials play central roles. Following user-centered design, they will conductfocus groups with knowledge workers with visual impairments to identify key use cases andneeds. Then they will design low-fidelity prototypes to explore accessible features. They willevaluate these prototypes with target users and develop a preliminary set of guidelines. Iffunded for Phase 2, they will iterate on the initial prototypes and rigorously evaluate them incontrolled studies. In addition, they will refine the guidelines and work to incorporate them intoexisting accessibility standards.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.