When the World Opens Up: Journeys of People with Intellectual Disabilities in Social Virtual Reality

Adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) face systemic social exclusion that narrows autonomy and life opportunities. While social virtual reality (VR) offers a powerful medium for identity expression and community belonging, research often adopts a remedial paradigm, focusing on training functional skills in scripted environments. This paper challenges this deficit-based model by treating social VR as an open world for participation. Following 11 adults with ID across multi-session engagements with VRChat, we employed an adaptive, relational method to scaffold participant leadership. Findings reveal that participants used the platform for interest-driven discovery, sustained through interdependent care webs. Crucially, the study demonstrates how social VR supports transferable confidence and emerging digital citizenship, enabling some users to transition from novices to community leaders. We contribute six Disability Justice-aligned design principles articulating world-making paradigm that reorients Human-Computer Interaction toward supporting personhood and self-determination in mainstream digital publics.