Towards an Equitable Social VR

社会虚拟现实（SVR）构建了一个与物理世界平行的数字世界，使现代沉浸式虚拟现实（VR）技术介导的远程社交成为可能。这种社会参与并不严格限于传统的社会互动，最近还扩展到包括远程参与培训、工作和服务提供等活动。这个数字平行世界为目前被现实世界边缘化的个人提供了更大的包容机会，从而扩大了进入数字经济的机会。SVR是一项迅速兴起的技术，其采用速度在全球大流行中加快了。然而，迄今为止，对于目前因残疾或与年龄相关的能力丧失而面临数字访问障碍的用户，关于SVR的可访问性和包容性要求的研究有限。作为一个社会，我们正处于一个关键时刻，在技术仍处于形成阶段的时候，包容性和可访问性的概念可以嵌入到SVR中。《实现公平的社会虚拟现实》解决了确保残疾人和老年人无障碍和包容的虚拟现实平台的需求，从而使这些平台在促进这些人群的生活质量方面的潜力得到充分实现。该项目将开展一项研发计划，旨在提供SVR包容框架：一套正式的指导和工具，旨在促进残疾人和老年用户平等参与SVR。该项目将考虑到各种能力丧失的表现，包括视力、听力、行动能力、灵巧性、认知方面的神经多样性（学习困难）和心理健康，以及同时发生的能力丧失。

Towards an Equitable Social VRSocial Virtual Reality (SVR) constructs a digital parallel to the physical world, enabling remote social engagement mediated by modern immersive Virtual Reality (VR) technology. This social engagement is not strictly limited to conventional social interaction, but has also recently expanded to include activities such as remote participation in training, work, and service delivery. This digital parallel world offers significant opportunities for greater inclusion of individuals who are currently marginalised by the physical world, thereby widening access to the Digital Economy. SVR is a rapidly emerging technology and its pace of adoption has accelerated in the global pandemic. However, to date, there has been limited research examining the accessibility and inclusion requirements of SVR for users who currently face digital access barriers due to a disability or age-related capability loss. As a society, we sit at a critical juncture where concepts of inclusion and accessibility can be embedded into SVR while the technology is still in its formative stage.Towards an Equitable Social VR addresses the need to ensure that SVR platforms are accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities and older people, thus allowing for the potential of the platforms in contributing to the quality of life of these population groups to be realised in full. The project will undertake a programme of R&D with the aim of delivering the SVR Inclusion Framework: a collection of formalised guidance and tools serving to facilitate equal participation in SVR for disabled and older users. The project will take into account the whole spectrum of capability loss manifestations, including vision, hearing, mobility, dexterity, and neurodiversity aspects of cognition (learning difficulties) and mental health, as well as the co-occurrence of capability loss.