Inclusion in Virtual Reality Technology and Applications

Virtual Reality (VR) as an immersive and interactive virtual world experience is playing an increasingly important role in many areas, such as science, education, entertainment, and business. VR uses immersive Head-Mounted Displays (HMD) or non-immersive platforms (desktop and mobile) to allow a more engaging and interactive experience for users. Despite its potential to radically change the way people interact with information online (demonstrated throughout the COVID pandemic), the design and development of mainstream VR are mostly motivated by the scientific and creative curiosity of designers as well as the commercial goals of larger corporations such as Facebook and Microsoft, who manufacture VR devices. There is limited research on how VR systems should be designed to address the needs of, for example, people with limited physical abilities and how issues such as gender bias in VR should be addressed. There is even less research (close to none) on what ethical and cultural protocols should be followed to make VR systems useful for Indigenous, black, and other racialized communities, with no formal and organized role in developing VR technologies. We consider inclusion to go beyond equitable access and cover the active participation of different individuals and communities in various stages of design, development, and usage, with their special needs, concerns, knowledge, and protocols influencing the way VR experiences are shaped. Inclusion should not be an afterthought in VR technology and application design. It should be embedded into the process from the start.

Novel research and discussions on more inclusive VR technology and systems with a focus on new design techniques and methods and also social and ethical aspects of VR fit in the overall journal theme.

Aims, scope, and topics of interest:

- Our goal is to bring together researchers who investigate various aspects of inclusion in VR.
- This special issue covers all areas of VR, from hardware/software to applications, usage, social impact, and ethical concerns, in any field. We invite submissions in the form of original research, surveys, and position papers.

Our topics of interest include but are not limited to:

- Accessibility and topics related to people with various disabilities
- Gender bias and topics related to women and LGBTQ + communities
- Age and its effect on the design and use of VR
- Ethnic and cultural inclusion, particularly topics related to marginalized and under-represented groups such as Indigenous People and ethnic minorities
- Social and platform scalability
- Application areas and moving VR beyond common fields such as entertainment

Abstract submission is optional and only for receiving initial feedback