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，并通过语音和肢体动作与他人互动。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的“面对面”社交体验，可以减轻残疾人在现实世界中可能面临的互动障碍。虚拟形象的使用也使残疾人能够灵活地表达自己的身份，策划可能或多或少与他们的残疾有关的理想社会形象。然而，目前的社交VR平台在支持残疾人的包容性身份表现方面还不成熟，比如虚拟化身的外观、声音和行为对自我表现的支持程度。此外，由于社会虚拟现实中缺乏完善的社会规范，即使是有效的身份表达工具也可能导致残疾人士遭受耻辱和风险，而且残疾人士经常遭受耻辱。该项目通过研究如何在社会虚拟现实中支持灵活和安全的残疾人代表，促进残疾人的包容和公平。通过密切的协同设计工作，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，社会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。本项目旨在为残疾人士营造一个包容和谐的虚拟现实社会环境。为了实现这一目标，该团队专注于两个主要问题：(1)如何支持灵活的残疾代表，而不会引起误解或引发耻辱？(2)如何界定和降低社交VR中残疾信息披露带来的风险？为了回答这些问题，该团队将遵循以人为本的计算方法，在整个研究过程中深入吸引各种残疾人士。首先，小组将进行访谈研究，从化身和声音的角度深入了解残疾人士的身份表现偏好和需求。其次，团队将进行日记研究，以确定社交虚拟现实中残疾披露所引起的社会动态，从而建立一个理论风险模型，表征PWD可能经历的风险类型和严重程度。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Unity工具包传播，供研究人员和开发人员构建；同时，开发的方法和技术应适应社交VR中围绕包容性和安全性的其他问题。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

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.