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

社交虚拟现实(VR)是一种新兴的社交媒体，用户以化身的形式沉浸在3D虚拟空间中，并通过语音和身体手势与他人互动。这项技术可以改善残疾人(PWD)的社交生活，因为它模拟了真实世界中的面对面的社会体验，并可以缓解PWD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形象。然而，就化身的外表、声音和行为对期望的自我表征的支持程度而言，当前的社交VR平台在支持PWD的包容性身份表征方面还不成熟。此外，即使是有效的身份表达工具也可能导致对残疾人士的污名和风险，因为在社会虚拟现实中缺乏良好的社会规范，而残疾人士往往遭受污名。该项目通过调查如何在社会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性和公平性。透过紧密的合作设计工作，研究残疾人士的经验和喜好，项目团队将作出理论和技术上的贡献，包括包容性残疾表达的设计指引、残疾人士在社交虚拟现实中风险的理论模型，以及减低这些风险的技术和工具包。为了实现这一目标，该团队专注于两个主要问题：(1)如何在不引起误解或引发污名的情况下支持灵活的残疾陈述？(2)如何定义和缓解社交VR中残疾信息披露带来的风险？为了回答这些问题，该团队将遵循以人类为中心的计算方法，在整个研究过程中深入参与不同残疾人士的参与。首先，团队将进行访谈研究，从化身和声音两个角度深入了解残疾人士的身份表征偏好和需求。其次，该团队将进行一项日记研究，以确定残疾信息披露在社交虚拟现实中造成的社会动态，从而产生一个理论风险模型，该模型表征了残疾人可能面临的风险的类型和严重程度。最后，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的Unity工具包分发，供研究人员和开发人员参考；同时，开发的方法和技术应适用于有关社会VR中的包容性和安全性的其他问题。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已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。

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.