Editorial

Virtual reality and disability

Continuing on the success of the previous special issues (2005;4(3) and 2005;4(4)) on virtual reality in the areas of disability and rehabilitation, the present special issue contains papers presented at the International Conference on Disability, Virtual Reality and Associated Technologies (ICDVRAT) 2006 conference, held over three days at the Musikhuset in Esbjerg, Denmark. The 39 papers selected for presentation at the conference were collated into 9 plenary sessions: Social Interaction, Motion Tracking and 3D Modeling, Therapy, Interaction Control, Rehabilitation and Route Learning, Medical Treatment and Home-Based Rehabilitation, Visual Impairment, Cognitive Skills, and Stroke Rehabilitation. 
This special journal issue, Virtual Reality Technologies for Disability and Rehabilitation, showcases papers selected from the 2006 conference drawn from sessions on Social Interaction, Motion Tracking and 3D modeling, Medical Treatment, Visual Impairment, and Stroke Rehabilitation. The remaining sessions are represented in Volume 5(3) of this series.
The ICDVRAT is an applied research community aimed at exploring and developing virtual reality technologies for the benefit of users with a variety of disabilities or special needs. This community comprises technology developers, research scientists, practitioners, and end users who have now been working together for 10 years to develop and evaluate practical applications of virtual reality technologies in supporting a variety of individuals, educators, and practitioners. The papers in this special issue represent several aspects of ICDVRAT research, including tech-nology development, observations of user interaction with new technologies and recommendations for interface design, and evaluation of applications in medicine and rehabilitation. 
Over the last 10 years, considerable technical research development has been conducted to facilitate user access to digital information or, conversely, the use of digital media to support interaction with people, artifacts, and information in the physical environment. The paper by Tan, Yu, and McAllister presents a review of technologies supporting internet accessibility for visually impaired users and describes the development of an interoperable adaptive architecture allowing multiple assistive devices to be used to access different types of graphical web content. Wall and Brewster describe an actuated pin-array system that provides tactile feedback to allow a visually impaired person to explore bar charts using a graphics tablet and a sonification pen. The consideration of user exploration of 3D data is also described by Simonet, Guinard, and Tisseau in a case study demonstrating that the use of a cardinal reference, rather than an exocentric method, for space encoding enabled a more accurate exploration of maps. 
Shikata et al describe the development of a system designed to support individuals with hearing impairment to participate in large group meetings. Camera vision tech-nology is used to capture the visual scene and to examine participant gaze to determine who is speaking. Speech recognition technology is then used to analyze speech from the main speaker and present this as text on a video screen. Software development research is working toward a computer-generated sign language. Kuroda et al describe a method for the animation of body positions used in Japanese Sign Language, and Rathinavelu and Thiagarajan describe the early development of animated representation of verbal utterance that includes salient features used in lip reading (opening and closing of the lips, rounding of the lips, tongue position and jaw movement). 
A novel approach to computer-interaction is the brain-computer interface (BCI) is described by Miranda. This system uses information collected via electroencephalogram (EEG) to control selection and features of music composition and sound playback 
Observation studies are used to determine how virtual reality technologies can support interaction with the physical environment. Lopes-dos-Santos et al examined social inter-action between children with motor impairment and an adult when using an aesthetic resonance environment. The observation of behavior in child-system-adult interactivity revealed a progressive development of peer interaction, in which adults provided constructivist scaffolding for children to imitate and then create movement-based interaction with the computer system. Pareto and Snis describe the design of an information system comprising a location-aware auditory museum guide for users with reading disabilities and reduced vision. Observations identified user interaction leading to recommendations for further development.
Designing technologies for users with disabilities requires a thorough understanding of user and practitioner requirements for specific applications. User-centered design is a common approach to ICDVRAT technology develop-ment and provides important information for the designers of future technologies or applications. Andersson, Josefsson, and Pareto present a detailed consideration of design parameters required for the development of computer game-based scenarios for the support of social-skills training in children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). The recommendations for design, presentation, and variation along eight critical design parameters are specified. 
Virtual environments can be used to provide a represen-tation of a real world setting or scenario, allowing a
demonstration of social or behavioral skills. Such environments can be useful for practitioners to assess individual behavior to determine rehabilitation require-ments. Pullen et al examined the use of a desktop virtual environment representing a social situation to study social rule violation behavior in patients with prefrontal neurosurgical lesions and found that observation of patient performance identified subtle social cognitive impairments that cannot be detected using other means. Sander et al examined the usefulness of different types of immersive virtual environments for the rehabilitation of upper limb function and balance in stroke patients. An experimental study assessing the performance of healthy participants in reach and balance tasks found that movement performance and posture was more natural when using a projected screen rather than a head mounted display. 
Virtual reality technologies are starting to have an impact upon medical practice and training. Waddingham et al describe the development of a virtual reality-based system for interactive binocular treatment of amblyopia (lazy eye). Early clinical case studies show extremely promising results, with rapid improvement in visual acuity. Al-Khalifah et al present immersive-based virtual reality models developed for the simulation and visualization of body parts and structures for medical diagnosis, training, and education purposes. A survey conducted with medical practitioners suggests the usefulness of virtual reality models in medical training with differences of opinion concerning whether the technology is ready for such applications. 
The papers presented here provide a glimpse of the ICDVRAT research community, illustrating advances in virtual reality and associated technologies facilitating inter-action in physical and digital environments for individuals and practitioners in disability and rehabilitation. We hope that you will find this issue of interest and recommend this journal and use it to communicate this research to a broader public.

Principal Research Fellow Sue Cobb, BSc, MSc, PhD
Director, Virtual Reality Applications Research Team,
Human Factors Research Group,
School Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering
University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
E-mail: Sue.Cobb@nottingham.ac.uk

Associate Professor Tony Brooks 
Medialogy
Research and Development Park
Aalborg University Esbjerg, Esbjerg, Denmark
E-mail: tonybrooks@cs.aue.auc.dk

Professor Paul M Sharkey, HDipEE, BSc(Eng), MA, PhD
Director of Research
School of Systems Engineering
University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
E-mail: p.m.sharkey@reading.ac.uk 

Professor Joav Merrick, MD, MMedSci, DMSc 
Medical Director, Ministry of Social Affairs, Jerusalem
Director, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
E-mail: jmerrick@zahav.net.il