Independent mobility provides an essential underpinning for cognitive, perceptual, and social development in children. Children with severe physical disabilities are limited in the extent to which they can actively and independently explore their environments. These limitations can pose serious problems in academic achievement and social adjustment.

Preliminary work at the Oregon Research Institute suggests that children who learn to drive a motorized wheelchair in virtual reality gain functional skills which transfer or generalize to the natural environment. In fact, all of the children who completed the study showed gains in driving skill as indexed in actual reality. The more time children spent driving in VR, the greater their skill gains. However, a disappointing number of appropriate children chose not to participate in the study. The most frequent reason for not participating was the time and effort required to transport the children to the training situation. Higher participation rates might be achieved if the training program was available in a wider range of settings. Moreover, approximately two-thirds of the children who entered the study did not complete it. Dropping out of the study was usually attributed to the fact that children became bored while driving around in virtual reality, and/or to the fact that children did not like wearing a heavy and cumbersome head-mounted display which was uncomfortable and cut them off from the rest of the world. Attrition rates might be significantly reduced if children are able to share their virtual world experience with another individual with whom they can play, compete, or simply explore an exotic virtual world. Attrition might also decrease if children are not required to wear a head-mounted display in order to enjoy a three-dimensional experience in virtual reality.

Our goals for this project are to (a) upgrade the current platform using newer technology which is much faster, provides better more realistic graphics, and eliminates the need for wearing a head-mounted display at a price which is approximately one-third the cost of the original system; and (b) network the system so that two participants, from remote locations, can interact in the same virtual environment. This will permit children to play, compete, or simply explore exotic virtual worlds with a companion. This feature will motivate children to stay on task, work harder, and have more fun which will maximize their driving skill acquisition. This feature will also permit a trainer to work with children who are in remote locations and cannot easily be transported to a central training center.

Our plan is to complete the project in three phases over a two-year period. In Phase 1 we will upgrade the system already in place at the Oregon Research Institute. In Phase 2 we will network together our system at ORI with one already in place at the Regional Training Center in Portland, Oregon. In Phase 3 we will evaluate the extent to which children acquire driving skills in the real world as a function of training in virtual reality with a companion.