Individuals with disabilities are faced with unique barriers to education and employment. Virtual Reality can be used as an innovative technology to improve the self-determination, self-esteem, and positive interaction skills which could minimize the barriers to education and employment. The hardware and software including adaptive devices and connection to the Internet, scenarios/simulations, databases, and artificial intelligence are presented that will allow one to construct a VR Workstation that can be used with individuals with disabilities for training in self-determination, self-esteem and positive interaction skills and allow them to transition to the workplace.Summary of Anticipated Results and Implications:It is anticipated that this research will characterize the necessary hardware and software including connection to the Internet and adaptive devices suited to the individual's disability along with the required training scenarios, decision trees, database and other foundations necessary to improve self-determination and esteem and positives interaction skills that will minimize the barriers to education and employment. It will provide the foundation for constructing a VR Workstation that can be implemented in Phase II efforts.
