VR, AR and spatial audio present significant access frictions and barriers for disabled users and creators; as such, this lab seeks to generate collective/participatory access through virtual and in-person convenings with the goal of imagining new creative pathways for experiencing metaverse artworks amongst participants and future audiences.

Two virtual meetings (January 2023 and March 2023) will bookend a long weekend in San Francisco, with 4 in-person encounters taking place over 16-19 February 2023 . Each of these in-person experiences will focus on a specific experience in 1) AR, 2) VR, 3) Spatial audio, 4) speculative design, facilitated by disabled usability researchers Jennifer Justice and Frank Mondelli, access doula Claudia Alick, as well as our teams at Leonardo and Gray Area.

In this lab, we’ll be recording and taking notes on participant interactions and experiences with these immersive technologies as well as gathering and documenting creative artifacts from group activities. This documentation might be used for an online resource archive, illustrative and teaching purposes, as well as for marketing and communication purposes by Leonardo/ISAST and Gray Area.