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应用的技术，但它对视力障碍的人来说是完全无法访问的。虚拟现实的主要优势之一是它模拟了现实生活中的互动，人们四处走动，使用自然的非语言行为相互交谈。与此同时，由于COVID-19大流行，远程工作已变得司空见惯。雇主、研究人员和工作人员都表达了对VR工作场所的需求，在那里他们可以更容易地与他人进行头脑风暴和讨论。然而，尽管研究人员和从业人员提出了一些改善VR可访问性的方法，但还没有人探索如何使VR中的人际交流更容易。虽然盲人可以听到别人说话，但她错过了非语言线索，如接近，手势（挥手，挥手）和凝视。该提案旨在研究如何使这些非语言提示变得可访问，以提高VR的整体可访问性，从而支持有视觉障碍的知识工作者。该项目的总体目标是制定以用户为中心的、以证据为基础的指导方针，规定如何使VR能够被有视觉障碍的知识工作者访问。调查人员将专注于远程工作用例，其中人际沟通和可访问的共享材料发挥核心作用。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进行焦点小组讨论，以确定关键用例和需求。然后，他们将设计低保真度的原型，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。如果为第二阶段提供资金，他们将对最初的原型进行验证，并在对照研究中对其进行严格的评估。此外，他们将完善指导方针，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，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

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.