Collaborative Research: HCC: Small: Supporting Flexible and Safe Disability Representation in Social Virtual Reality

合作研究：HCC：小型：支持社交虚拟现实中灵活、安全的残疾表征

• 批准号: 2328182
• 负责人: Yuhang Zhao
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-12-01 至 2026-11-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2328182&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; HCC; Small; Supporting

Social Virtual Reality (VR) is an emerging social medium, where a user immerses in a 3D virtual space in the form of an avatar and interacts with others via speech and body gestures. This technology can improve the social life of people with disabilities (PWD) since it simulates the real-world "face-to-face" social experience and can mitigate barriers to interaction that PWD can face in the physical world. The use of avatars also allows PWD to flexibly express their identity, curating desired social images that may be more or less connected to their disabilities. However, current social VR platforms are immature in supporting inclusive identity representation for PWD, in terms of how well avatars' appearance, sounds, and behavior can support desired self-representations. Moreover, even effective tools for identity expression can lead to stigma and risks for PWD due to the lack of well-established social norms in social VR and the stigma PWD often suffer. This project promotes inclusion and equity for PWD by investigating how to support flexible and safe disability representation in social VR. By studying PWD's experiences and preferences through close co-design work, the project team will make both theoretical and technical contributions, including design guidelines for inclusive disability expression, theoretical models of risks for PWD in social VR, and technologies and toolkits that mitigate those risks.This project aims to facilitate an inclusive and harmonious social VR environment for PWD. To achieve this goal, the team focuses on two main questions: (1) How to support flexible disability representation without causing misconceptions or triggering stigma? (2) How to define and mitigate the risks caused by disability disclosure in social VR? To answer these questions, the team will follow human-centered computing approaches that deeply engage people with diverse disabilities across the research process. First, the team will conduct interview studies to build an in-depth understanding of the identity representation preferences and needs of PWD from both avatar and voice perspectives. Second, the team will conduct a diary study to identify the social dynamics caused by disability disclosure in social VR, resulting in a theoretical risk model that characterizes the types and severity of risks PWD may experience. Last, the team will design, implement, and evaluate a set of risk mitigation mechanisms via participatory design workshops. The validated mechanisms will be disseminated as an open source Unity toolkit for researchers and developers to build upon; meanwhile, the methods and technologies developed should be adaptable to other questions around inclusion and safety in social VR.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.

社交虚拟现实（VR）是一种新兴的社交媒体，其中用户以化身的形式沉浸在3D虚拟空间中，并通过语音和身体姿势与他人交互。这项技术可以改善残疾人的社交生活，因为它模拟了现实世界中“面对面”的社交体验，并可以减轻残疾人在物理世界中可能面临的互动障碍。化身的使用还允许残疾人灵活地表达他们的身份，策划可能或多或少与他们的残疾有关的所需社交图像。然而，目前的社交VR平台在支持PWD的包容性身份表示方面还不成熟，就化身的外观，声音和行为如何支持所需的自我表示而言。 此外，即使是有效的身份表达工具也可能导致残疾人的耻辱和风险，因为在社会VR中缺乏完善的社会规范，而且残疾人经常遭受耻辱。该项目通过调查如何在社交虚拟现实中支持灵活和安全的残疾代表来促进残疾人的包容和公平。通过密切的合作设计，研究残疾人的经验和偏好，项目团队将在理论和技术上做出贡献，包括包容性残疾表达的设计指南，社交VR中残疾人风险的理论模型，以及减轻这些风险的技术和工具包，该项目旨在为残疾人提供包容和谐的社交VR环境。为了实现这一目标，该小组重点关注两个主要问题：（1）如何支持灵活的残疾代表性，而不造成误解或引发污名？(2)如何定义和减轻社交VR中残疾披露带来的风险？为了回答这些问题，该团队将遵循以人为本的计算方法，在整个研究过程中深入参与各种残疾人。首先，该团队将进行访谈研究，从化身和声音的角度深入了解残疾人的身份表征偏好和需求。其次，该团队将进行日记研究，以确定社交VR中残疾披露引起的社会动态，从而产生一个理论风险模型，描述PWD可能经历的风险类型和严重程度。最后，该团队将通过参与式设计研讨会设计、实施和评估一套风险缓解机制。经过验证的机制将作为开源Unity工具包进行传播，供研究人员和开发人员使用;同时，开发的方法和技术应适用于社交VR中的包容性和安全性等问题。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。