"I Try to Represent Myself as I Am": Self-Presentation Preferences of People with Invisible Disabilities through Embodied Social VR Avatars

TL;DR

This study explores how individuals with invisible disabilities prefer to represent and disclose their disabilities in social VR avatars, highlighting diverse approaches and informing inclusive avatar design.

Contribution

It introduces a binary framework for embodied disability expression and identifies three disclosure patterns to guide inclusive VR avatar development.

Findings

Participants use VR features to dynamically express energy and engagement levels.

Many prefer not to disclose disabilities publicly, opting for private or situational disclosure.

Three distinct disclosure patterns were identified: Activists, Non-Disclosers, and Situational Disclosers.

Abstract

With the increasing adoption of social virtual reality (VR), it is critical to design inclusive avatars. While researchers have investigated how and why blind and d/Deaf people wish to disclose their disabilities in VR, little is known about the preferences of many others with invisible disabilities (e.g., ADHD, dyslexia, chronic conditions). We filled this gap by interviewing 15 participants, each with one to three invisible disabilities, who represented 22 different invisible disabilities in total. We found that invisibly disabled people approached avatar-based disclosure through contextualized considerations informed by their prior experiences. For example, some wished to use VR's embodied affordances, such as facial expressions and body language, to dynamically represent their energy level or willingness to engage with others, while others preferred not to disclose their disability identity in any context. We define a binary framework for embodied invisible disability expression (public and private) and discuss three disclosure patterns (Activists, Non-Disclosers, and Situational Disclosers) to inform the design of future inclusive VR experiences.