NSF Convergence Accelerator Track H: Making Virtual Reality Meetings Accessible to Knowledge Workers with Visual Impairments

NSF 融合加速器轨道 H：让有视觉障碍的知识工作者也能参加虚拟现实会议

• 批准号: 2236054
• 负责人: Shiri Azenkot
• 金额: $ 75万
• 依托单位: Cornell University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-12-15 至 2024-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2236054&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Convergence; Accelerator; Track; Making

Virtual reality (VR) promises to be a widespread technology in the coming years, but it iscompletely inaccessible to people with visual impairments. One of the main advantages of VR isthat it emulates real-life interactions where people walk around and talk to one another usingnaturalistic nonverbal behavior. Meanwhile, remote work has become commonplace due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. Employers, researchers, and workers alike are expressing the need forVR workplaces, where they can more easily brainstorm and hold discussions with others.However, while researchers and practitioners have proposed some methods for improving VRaccessibility, no one has explored how interpersonal communication in VR can be made moreaccessible. While a blind person can hear someone speak, she misses out on onverbal cueslike proximity, gestures (waves, nods), and gaze. This proposal aims to investigate how suchnonverbal cues can be made accessible to improve the overall accessibility of VR to supportknowledge workers with visual impairments.The overarching goal of the project is to develop user-centered, evidence-based guidelines thatstipulate how VR can be made accessible to knowledge workers with visual impairments. Theinvestigators will focus on remote work use cases, where interpersonal communication andaccessible shared materials play central roles. Following user-centered design, they will conductfocus groups with knowledge workers with visual impairments to identify key use cases andneeds. Then they will design low-fidelity prototypes to explore accessible features. They willevaluate these prototypes with target users and develop a preliminary set of guidelines. Iffunded for Phase 2, they will iterate on the initial prototypes and rigorously evaluate them incontrolled studies. In addition, they will refine the guidelines and work to incorporate them intoexisting accessibility standards.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.

虚拟现实（VR）有望在未来几年成为一项广泛的技术，但对于视觉障碍的人来说，这是无法访问的。 VR的主要优势之一是它模拟了现实生活中的互动，人们使用自然的非语言行为走动并彼此交谈。同时，由于19日大流行，远程工作变得司空见惯。雇主，研究人员和工人都表达了Forvr工作场所的需求，他们可以更容易地集思广益并与他人进行讨论。虽然一个盲人可以听到有人说话，但她错过了Onererbal Cutike的邻近，手势（波浪，点头）和凝视。该提案旨在调查如何使该范围的提示能够访问，以提高VR的整体可访问性，以支持知识障碍者的整体可及性。评估者将专注于远程工作用例，即人际交流和可访问的共享材料扮演着核心角色。以用户为中心的设计，他们将与知识工人进行视觉障碍的知识工人组合，以识别关键用例和款项。然后，他们将设计低保真原型以探索可访问的功能。他们将与目标用户一起对这些原型进行评估，并制定一套初步的准则。如果投入了第2阶段，他们将迭代初始原型，并严格评估它们不受控制的研究。此外，他们还将完善指导方针，并将其纳入可访问性标准。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估标准通过评估来支持的。