A URI professor is exploring virtual reality as a tool to help adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities cope with the effects of trauma.

KINGSTON, RI – Oct. 21, 2024 – Virtual reality devices have become a popular form of entertainment, communication and education with more than 30 million people in the US owning systems and exploring 3-D worlds to play video games, learn the new ones. skill, or create art.

But can virtual reality be used as a tool to help people with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD) recover from stressful situations?

Krishna Venkatasubramanian, a University of Rhode Island professor of computer science and statistics, is exploring that possibility with a three-year, $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Through his research, he hopes to create virtual worlds that help adults with IDD, who have experienced depression, to help them cope with their emotions by removing their negative feelings when prompted.

Venkatasubramanian, director of the Accessible and Socially Aware Technologies (ASSET) Lab at URI, has worked with people with IDD for more than six years on a number of projects to design, test and develop accessible technologies. There are more than 7 million people in the US dealing with IDD, such as Down syndrome and autism, and many of them experience traumatic events, such as abuse, he said.

These events – along with the effects of dealing with health and mental health issues, and everyday life – can trigger feelings of depression, grief and anxiety. In addition, there is a shortage of doctors trained to work with people in the IDD community, he said.

“All these issues cause a big problem because they cannot get the help they need. So, we thought, ‘Can we use technology in some way to help,'” Venkatasubramanian said. “The goal is to help them deal effectively with that time so that when they are motivated by something that is happening in their life, they can use virtual reality to help them deal with that situation.

“Mostly it will be a self-management tool and we are trying to make it so that it can be used by them freely rather than someone helping them to do it,” he added. “This will be there along with any other aid [such as therapy] they need it.”

Virtual reality devices and 3-D worlds that give users an immersive experience, can be an ideal tool. The devices are relatively inexpensive and the user interface is similar to that of a smartphone, which is familiar to people with IDD, he said. Virtual reality has also been used for self-management strategies – such as creating meditation situations. But those virtual worlds are designed for people who already understand meditation, who have used virtual reality and its systems, and know how to navigate in immersive environments, he said.

“It’s even more complicated because we’re designing for people who don’t know anything about VR, who can sometimes be surprised by VR. So, the fundamentals of VR design have to be asked,​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ someone with nerves, you can’t worry about them. That’s what makes it so interesting from a technical standpoint.”

To understand accessibility issues, Venkatasubramanian meets with members of the IDD community and observes them using VR headsets to see what problems they have had with the system. Most of the problems stem from the poor design of virtual reality headsets, controllers, and 3-D environments used by people with IDD. Community guidance will be essential to help resolve these issues.

“We plan together with the community,” he said. “We don’t force our own ideas on them. Every time we do something, we ask them, ‘What do you want to do?’ Then they give feedback, we use it, and we talk to them.”

Along with the design, he will be exploring self-regulation techniques – such as meditation or listening to music – that members of the community can use and incorporate into the virtual environment. The project also uses the concept of “traumatic care” from the field of social work, to recognize the role of trauma and its lasting effects on people who have experienced and used that awareness to create maintenance procedures to avoid bringing them back.

He said: “That is the basis of this research.” “We want to do this VR research and all of that. It’s the visual stuff. But the basic idea of ​​the project is this idea of ​​taking trauma care from the social welfare field and using it to computer science.”

Venkatasubramanian plans to test the technology with members of the IDD community who were not part of the design team. They will use the equipment for the first time and report on their experience.

“Ultimately, we’ll have guidelines on how to design this community, know what kind of self-regulation they’re doing, and have sample apps,” he said. so that other people can do their own research.”