Accessible Experiences in Immersive Digital Technology

虚拟现实提供了机会，使残疾人能够获得以前无法获得的广泛体验。无论是通过虚拟体育场参与活动，探索物理世界无法进入的历史建筑，还是简单地在虚拟房间里与离家很远的朋友玩棋盘游戏，这项技术都可以打开一个充满可能性的世界。与用户需求和偏好不匹配以及VR技术设计相关的障碍可能导致残疾人被排除在工作、教育和休闲的关键方面。然而，随着可访问性成为技术创新领域的一个主要问题，以及虚拟现实作为一个体验平台仍处于孵化阶段，在其在市场上成熟之前，有机会使其尽可能具有包容性。愿景我的研究计划的五年目标是创建实现VR市场变革所需的设计和评估方法，以便所有用户都能找到提供他们想要的体验的虚拟现实环境。挑战实现这一目标的挑战是巨大的。我们目前缺乏对阻碍残疾人参与虚拟现实的关键障碍的了解，考虑到用户社区的分布式性质，从广泛的残疾人那里收集这些信息是困难的。这使我们无法确定无障碍设计中存在的差距，并提出新的障碍解决方案。最后，我们没有机制来比较或对比残疾人的体验，以了解我们是否成功地合作，使用户能够进入这些虚拟空间。目标(1)收集有关不同残疾用户群体共享的VR最突出障碍的数据(2)与技术提供商合作，确定现有解决方案，提出新的解决方案，并严格评估这些解决方案在多大程度上满足残疾人的需求(3)设计和验证捕捉残疾人使用技术体验的新措施。成功后，一系列展示障碍及其解决方案的设计组合将向全球VR设计界提供，为将增加VR空间包容性的设计提供选择。通过与AbleGamers慈善机构的合作，这项研究的结果将通过培训、社交媒体和免费在线资源传达给游戏开发商。此外，我们将首次有能力定量衡量残疾人使用技术的体验。这将代表着研究领域的一大变革，并极大地增强加拿大作为无障碍领域前瞻性思维的已经很强的声誉。

Virtual reality provides opportunities to enable people with disabilities into a broad range of experiences that were previously unavailable. Whether it is participation in events through virtual stadia, exploring historical buildings that are inaccessible in the physical world, or simply playing board games in a virtual room with friends who are far from home, this technology can open a world of possibilities. Barriers related to the mismatch between users' needs and preferences and the design of the VR technology could result in people with disabilities being excluded from key aspects of work, education, and leisure. However, with accessibility becoming a major issue in areas of technology innovation, and with VR still incubating as a platform for experiences, there is an opportunity to make it as inclusive as possible before it reaches maturity in the marketplace. Vision The 5-year goal of my research program is to create the design and evaluation methodologies needed to effect change in the VR marketplace so that all users can find a virtual reality environment that delivers the experiences they want to have . Challenges The challenges of reaching this goal are immense. We currently lack knowledge of what the key barriers are that keep people with disabilities from participating in virtual reality, and collecting this information from a broad range of people with disabilities is difficult given the distributed nature of the user community. This prevents us from being able to identify where there are gaps in accessible design and propose new solutions to barriers. Finally, we have no mechanisms of comparing or contrasting the experiences of people with disabilities to know if we have succeeded in working together to enable users into these virtual spaces. Objectives (1) collect data about the most prominent barriers to VR shared across the diverse groups of users with disabilities (2) collaborate with technology providers to identify existing solutions, propose new solutions, and rigorously evaluate how well those solutions meet the needs of people with disabilities (3) design and validate new measures that capture the experiences of people with disabilities with technology. Impact When successful, a collection of design portfolios demonstrating the barriers and their solutions will be available to the global design community for VR, giving options for designs that will increase inclusion in the VR space. Through cooperation with the AbleGamers Charity the results of this research will be communicated to game developers through training, social media and free online resources. Further, for the first time, we will have the ability to quantitatively measure the experience of people with disabilities with technology.  This will represent a step-change in the research space and greatly enhance the already strong reputation of Canada as a forward-thinking in accessibility.