VR4VR: Towards vocational rehabilitation of individuals with disabilities in immersive virtual reality environments

In this paper, a virtual reality for vocational rehabilitation (VR4VR) system for individuals with disabilities is presented. VR4VR aims to enable job coaches to use immersive virtual environments to inexpensively and safely assess and train the job skills of individuals with disabilities. Several key system requirements and challenges are discussed, including the need for virtual “distractor” stimuli to observe user behavior in unexpected situations, the need to make the virtual experience and 3D user interfaces adapt to the specific disabilities of the user, and the challenges in maintaining senses of presence and copresence, especially in individuals with cognitive disabilities. In this work, the chosen population includes individuals with autism spectrum disorder, traumatic brain injury and severe mobility impairment. Using virtual reality enables safe immersion of potential employees in a range of scenarios they may encounter, long before they encounter them in a real job.