When the World Opens up: Journeys of People with Intellectual Disabilities in Social Virtual Reality

Paper Title

When the World Opens Up: Journeys of People with Intellectual Disabilities in Social Virtual Reality

Publication Info

• Topic area: Social Virtual Reality (VR) for adults with intellectual disabilities (ID), focusing on participation and agency.
• Keywords: Intellectual disabilities, social VR, VRChat, Disability Justice, digital citizenship, interdependence, identity expression, safety, world-making, accessibility.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Existing research on VR for people with ID predominantly focuses on remedial, skills-based training in controlled environments, neglecting open-ended participation and agency in mainstream digital spaces.
• Significance: Social VR platforms like VRChat offer opportunities for identity expression, community building, and digital citizenship, which are often inaccessible offline. However, these platforms also present risks such as harassment and sensory overwhelm, requiring careful design and support.
• Motivation and related work: Prior studies have shown that VR can be used for skills training but often reinforce deficit-focused models. Disability Justice frameworks advocate for centering self-determination and interdependence, challenging the overprotective and remedial paradigms in technology design. This study seeks to explore how adults with ID can engage with mainstream social VR as agents of their own experience.

Solution

• Proposed approach: A qualitative, exploratory study of 11 adults with mild ID engaging with the mainstream social VR platform VRChat over three scaffolded sessions.
• Novelty:
  1. Shifting from a remedial to a world-making paradigm, emphasizing agency, personhood, and interdependence.
  2. Developing and applying six Disability Justice-aligned design principles for social VR.
  3. Demonstrating how social VR can support transferable confidence and emerging digital citizenship.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Participants were introduced to VRChat in three stages: onboarding in private/low-stimulation worlds, participant-led exploration, and engagement in public social hubs.
  • Data were collected through observational logs, fieldnotes, semi-structured interviews, and a follow-up interview with one participant who continued using VRChat independently.
  • Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA) was used to analyze the data, focusing on themes of safety, identity expression, interdependence, and participation.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Participants used VRChat for interest-driven exploration, identity expression through avatars, and social engagement.
  • Gradual exposure and interdependent care webs were key to building confidence and navigating safety.
  • One participant transitioned to independent use, building a social network of over 70 friends and becoming a community leader.
• Advantage over baselines: Unlike traditional VR studies that focus on task-based training, this study demonstrated how open-ended exploration in social VR supports agency, identity, and meaningful participation.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Participants engaged in three scaffolded VRChat sessions, progressing from private to public worlds.
  • Evaluation focused on participation capability, including entry, repair, routine, role, and judgment-in-action.
  • Data triangulation across observational logs, interviews, and fieldnotes provided a rich understanding of participant experiences.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Small, predominantly White British sample limits generalizability.
  • Most participants used VRChat only within facilitated sessions, with one exception.
  • Future research should explore diverse populations, other social VR platforms, and peer-led facilitation.

Summary

This study explored how adults with mild intellectual disabilities engage with the mainstream social VR platform VRChat, shifting from a remedial to a world-making paradigm. Findings showed that participants used VRChat for identity expression, interest-driven exploration, and social connection, supported by interdependent care webs. One participant demonstrated a significant arc of self-directed learning and community building, highlighting the potential for digital citizenship. The study contributes six Disability Justice-aligned design principles for social VR, emphasizing participation, personhood, interdependence, and transferable confidence. These insights inform the design of accessible, inclusive digital publics that support agency and belonging for adults with ID.