Leveling the Playing Field: Supporting Neurodiversity Via Virtual Realities

Boyd, LouAnne; Day, Kendra; Stewart, Natalia; Abdo, Kaitlyn; Lamkin, Kathleen; Linstead, Erik

doi:10.21300/20.1-2.2018.105

Cited by 23 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The proportions of other learning disabilities vary, but there is a clear need to discuss how these apps are perceived by neurodivergent users. Some basic psychology reviews are available on how neurodiverse individuals interact with VR (Boyd, et al, 2018;Lopez-Carral et al, 2022;Thomsen & Adjorlo, 2021).…”

Section: Preliminary User Testingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Virtual Reality (VR) Multi-User Lab for Immersive Teaching

Savickaite¹,

Millington²,

Latkovskis³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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As VR technology matures, it offers opportunities to provide state of the art learning experiences. The use of this technology in education is not new, however, it can be significantly improved. Situated (or contextual) learning is one of the key pillars of immersive learning. Multi-user interaction in virtual environments has always been one of the goals of VR and this has been represented by the tools developed for it. In this preliminary work, we aim to introduce Project Mobius, which is a collaborative project between Edify.ac and the University of Glasgow. We describe how our multi-user lab has been set up and potential future applications for teaching and learning.

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Section: Preliminary User Testingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Virtual Reality (VR) Multi-User Lab for Immersive Teaching

Savickaite¹,

Millington²,

Latkovskis³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…Most existing literature on the use of XR involving people with different learning and/or cognitive styles focuses on the positive aspects of utilizing these technologies for therapeutic purposes (Boyd et al, 2018;Freeman et al, 2017). However, there is little research on the experiences of neurodivergent people using mainstream XR technologies, for instance during gaming, and the challenges they might encounter when interacting with these technologies (Spiel and Gerling, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two sides of the same coin: accessibility practices and neurodivergent users' experience of extended reality

Lukava

Ramírez

Barbareschi

2022

JET

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PurposeThis paper explores the accessibility barriers faced by neurodivergent individuals regarding the use of Extended Reality (XR) technologies and the difficulties faced by developers in creating neurodivergent inclusive XR experiences.Design/methodology/approachThe authors carried out a survey with neurodivergent participants, and a series of semi-structured interviews with neurodivergent adults and XR developers.FindingsNeurodivergent individuals experience sensory overload when using XR technologies; these negative experiences are exacerbated by excessive multisensory stimulation. Allowing for the customization of sensory settings was seen as the only way to potentially limit negative experiences. The authors found that XR developers lacked awareness of accessibility requirements and struggled to integrate them in current software development practices.Social implicationsAccessibility understanding regarding neurodivergence is increasingly available and the time has come to bring computing and information services within the reach of all neurodivergent individuals. The power in the design of XR, which is crucial, is decentralized from neurotypical XR developing practices to avoid artificial barriers that decrease the quality of life.Originality/valueThere is a lack of studies exploring how neurodivergent individuals experience XR considering their different sensory processing patterns. There is also no research exploring XR developers' awareness of accessibility needs of neurodivergent individuals. This paper presents an account of the challenges faced by neurodivergent XR users, the difficulties faced by XR developers to integrate neurodivergent accessibility requirements, and proposes specific strategies to overcome challenges.

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“…Neurodiversity covers the range of differences in individual brain function and behavioural traits, regarded as part of normal variation in the human population [46]. Each NDCs uniquely affects how information is absorbed, processed, and communicated [37,5]. Our objective is to adapt LMs for the individual requirements of a select number NDCs in learning environments, focusing specifically on dyslexia, dyscalculia and Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) (with prevalences of 10%, 6% and 5-15% respectively [11,45,15]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Equitable Ability Estimation in Neurodivergent Student Populations with Zero-Inflated Learner Models

Twomey¹,

McMullan²,

Elhalal³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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At present, the educational data mining community lacks many tools needed for ensuring equitable ability estimation for Neurodivergent (ND) learners. On one hand, most learner models are susceptible to under-estimating ND ability since confounding contexts cannot be held accountable (e.g. consider dyslexia and text-heavy assessments), and on the other, few (if any) existing datasets are suited for appraising model and data bias in ND contexts. In this paper we attempt to model the relationships between context (delivery and response types) and performance of ND students with zero-inflated learner models. This approach facilitates simulation of several expected ND behavioural traits, provides equitable ability estimates across all student groups from generated datasets, increases interpretability confidence, and can double the number of learning opportunities for ND students in some cases. Our approach consistently out-performs baselines in our experiments and can also be applied to many other learner modelling frameworks.

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Leveling the Playing Field: Supporting Neurodiversity Via Virtual Realities

Cited by 23 publications

References 27 publications

Virtual Reality (VR) Multi-User Lab for Immersive Teaching

Virtual Reality (VR) Multi-User Lab for Immersive Teaching

Two sides of the same coin: accessibility practices and neurodivergent users' experience of extended reality

Equitable Ability Estimation in Neurodivergent Student Populations with Zero-Inflated Learner Models

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