A model for the design of immersive learning enactments for students with disabilities: A literature review-based validation for students with intellectual disability

Abstract

Immersive technologies offer benefits with great potential in special education. A limited number of publications have been found regarding the design of immersive educational environments for special education and especially for students with disabilities. This study proposes MILES-D, a model for the design of effective immersive educational environments for students with disabilities. MILES-D comprises two dimensions by incorporating the affordances of immersive technologies and the Universal Design for Learning model, to propose a series of learning tasks afforded in immersive environments for students with disabilities. A systematic literature review regarding students with intellectual disability revealed that researchers do not seem to use any model for the design of their educational environments. Nevertheless, studies incorporating certain affordances, develop immersive environments which follow the proposed by MILES-D tasks. This is a first indication that MILES-D works and empirical studies are needed to validate it.