"We Cried on Each Other’s Shoulders": How LGBTQ+ Individuals Experience Social Support in Social Virtual Reality

Li, Lingyuan; Freeman, Guo; Schulenberg, Kelsea; Acena, Dane

doi:10.1145/3544548.3581530

Cited by 8 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 88 publications

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“…Recent projects have even used VR systems to ease users with disabilities such as schizophrenia [162] and autism [28] into the workforce through virtual job training sessions. Social VR platforms such as VRChat and RecRoom can be an important source of social support for LGBTQ individuals [106] and can support positive mental health outcomes by encouraging socialization to combat loneliness [56]. Certain diseases, such as depression, anxiety, dementia, and arthritis, are up to eight times as likely for people with epilepsy compared to the general population [99].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing for photosensitive accessibility across social, interactive, and immersive digital platforms

South

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Photosensitive epilepsy (PSE) is a neurological condition in which seizures are triggered by certain visual stimuli, such as flashes, strobes, or bright patterns. People who have been diagnosed with photosensitive epilepsy often struggle to use digital technology safely, as strobing lights can appear on screens without warning in ways that are difficult to anticipate and avoid. Given the severe medical complications and adverse outcomes associated with seizures, it is fundamental that digital platforms have systems to detect and mitigate seizure-inducing content before it reaches users with photosensitivity. However, detecting seizure-inducing content on digital platforms can be complicated due to variations between technology modalities, unpredictable sources of seizure-inducing flicker, and differences in sensitivity levels among people with PSE. This dissertation examines design considerations for minimizing photosensitive risk in digital spaces that are social, interactive, and even immersive in nature. This work establishes a theoretical foundation for incorporating photosensitive epilepsy into the broader research area of digital accessibility, building on prior work in human-computer interaction research. Through software prototypes and interviews with people with PSE, this work explores the benefits and limitations of creator-, consumer-, and platform-driven systems for detecting and mitigating photosensitive risk across digital platforms. Finally, this work encompasses several empirical studies that contribute to broader knowledge about the prevalence and presentation of seizure-inducing content on digital platforms. am forever grateful for the encouragement and support shown by Bruce Draper and Ross Beveridge in advising my undergraduate thesis efforts on the topic of photosensitive accessibility. I am also grateful to Janne Lindqvist for his advice and guidance while at the DIMACS REU at Rutgers University, which was a formative experience in learning what research can be. I have been lucky to find talented and kind collaborators and peers at Northeastern University and beyond over the past six years: thank you to

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing for photosensitive accessibility across social, interactive, and immersive digital platforms

South

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Springboard, Roadblock or “Crutch”?: How Transgender Users Leverage Voice Changers for Gender Presentation in Social Virtual Reality

Povinelli,

Zhao

2024

2024 IEEE Conference Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR)

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"We Don't Want a Bird Cage, We Want Guardrails": Understanding & Designing for Preventing Interpersonal Harm in Social VR through the Lens of Consent

Schulenberg,

Li,

Lancaster

et al. 2023

Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact.

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As social Virtual Reality (VR) grows in prevalence, new possibilities for embodied and immersive social interaction emerge, including varied forms of interpersonal harm. Yet, challenges remain regarding defining, identifying, and mitigating said harm in social VR. In this paper, we take an alternative approach to understanding and designing solutions for interpersonal harm in social VR through the lens of consent, which circumvents the lack of consensus and social norms on what should be defined as harm in social VR and reflects the embodied, immersive, and offline-world-like nature of harm in social VR. Through interviews with 39 social VR users, we offer one of the first empirical explorations on how social VR users understand consent as "boundaries," (re)purpose existing social VR features for practicing consent as "boundary setting," and envision the design of future consent mechanics in social VR to balance protection and interaction expectations to mitigate interpersonal harm as "boundary violations" in social VR. This work makes significant contributions to CSCW and HCI research by (1) uncovering how social VR users craft novel conceptualizations of consent as boundaries and harm as unwanted boundary violations, and (2) providing three foundational principles for designing future consent mechanics in social VR informed by actual social VR users.

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"We Cried on Each Other’s Shoulders": How LGBTQ+ Individuals Experience Social Support in Social Virtual Reality

Cited by 8 publications

References 88 publications

Designing for photosensitive accessibility across social, interactive, and immersive digital platforms

Designing for photosensitive accessibility across social, interactive, and immersive digital platforms

Springboard, Roadblock or “Crutch”?: How Transgender Users Leverage Voice Changers for Gender Presentation in Social Virtual Reality

"We Don't Want a Bird Cage, We Want Guardrails": Understanding & Designing for Preventing Interpersonal Harm in Social VR through the Lens of Consent

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