Inclusive Immersion (2019-2023) and Towards an Equitable Social VR (2022-2025) explore the barriers to inclusion in VR and AR for people with disabilities and the elderly and seek to propose solutions to improve the accessibility of immersive interfaces and content . The two R&D projects are managed by the Brunel Design School, Brunel University London and the Engineering Design Centre, University of Cambridge, in collaboration with project consortium partners Open Inclusion, Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), Digital Catapult and Meta.

The projects are funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), UK. The talk will provide an overview of both projects and the user research conducted to date, including the recently completed VR/AR usability study involving 40 users from across the disability spectrum.

About the speakers
Dr. Vanja Garaj, Brunel Design School, Brunel University London
Dr. Vanja Garaj is director of research and reader in design at Brunel Design School, Brunel University London. He was previously head of design at Brunel. Vanja's research spans the areas of human-computer interaction (HCI), human factors, user experience (UX) and inclusive design. He specializes in user requirements capture and analysis, system design, UX design and user evaluation applied to the development of new products, services and experiences – with the current focus on various applications of immersive technologies.

Dr. Kate Mesh, Open Inclusion
Kate is a Senior Inclusive Researcher at the consultancy Open Inclusion. She has more than 15 years of experience as a communications researcher, studying how people with disabilities – especially those with deafness and hearing loss – understand and create rich, layered messages using their hands, body and voice.

Dr. John Dudley, Engineering Design Centre, University of Cambridge
John Dudley is an Associate Professor at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on the design of interactive systems that dynamically adapt to the needs and behavior of users.

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