Towards Inclusive Avatars: Disability Representation in Avatar Platforms

Abstract

Digital avatars are an important part of identity representation, but there is little work on understanding how to represent disability. We interviewed 18 people with disabilities and related identities about their experiences and preferences in representing their identities with avatars. Participants generally preferred to represent their disability identity if the context felt safe and platforms supported their expression, as it was important for feeling authentically represented. They also utilized avatars in strategic ways: as a means to signal and disclose current abilities, access needs, and to raise awareness. Some participants even found avatars to be a more accessible way to communicate than alternatives. We discuss how avatars can support disability identity representation because of their easily customizable format that is not strictly tied to reality. We conclude with design recommendations for creating platforms that better support people in representing their disability and other minoritized identities.

Three Perspectives on Embodied Learning in Virtual Reality: Opportunities for Interaction Design

“…Learners may difer in age, gender, ethnicity, background, but also in cognitive and physical characteristics. From a representation standpoint, these diferences already impact avatar design [32]. From an embodiment standpoint, further considerations should be acknowledged.…”

A Diary Study in Social Virtual Reality: Impact of Avatars with Disability Signifiers on the Social Experiences of People with Disabilities

“…At the beginning of our study, all participants showed an initial willingness to disclose their disabilities on avatars. Three participants (P1, P4, P5) mentioned that their disability was "an important part of my identity" (P5) and wanted their avatars to look like themselves in real life as much as possible, which confrmed the insight from prior research [45,74]. Additionally, P1 believed that avatars with DS consolidated his disability identity, "Having similar limitations [via my avatar in social VR] is really helpful for me and my comfort [...] it makes me feel more comfortable in what I need to do for myself [and] taking care of myself.…”

“…Zhang et al [74] interviewed 19 participants who had visual and hearing impairments and revealed that PWD preferred disclosing their disabilities via avatars and adopted a spectrum of strategies to curate their images in social VR, such as revealing selective disabilities and indicating ability changes via avatars. The other work by Mack et al focused on PWD with invisible disabilities and how they managed multiple identities via avatar design [45]. They found that participants with multiple, intersecting minoritized identities needed to make trade-ofs when deciding which identities to present via avatars, especially when the expression of one identity conficted with the other (e.g., a South Asian person with albinism had difculty presenting their race and disability at the same time).…”

“…As an important marginalized community with 1.3 billion people worldwide [52], people with disabilities (PWD) have shown increasing presence in social VR. Prior research has explored PWD's identity disclosure preferences in social VR and found that many PWD are willing to disclose their disability via avatar design [45,74]. Zhang et al have also revealed PWD's concerns about the potential risks caused by disability disclosure in social VR using avatars, such as being treated unequally and exposing vulnerability to strangers [74].…”