The Metaverse is proposed as a collection of interconnected virtual worlds allowing people to seamlessly access and traverse through them. It offers an opportunity to remove physical boundaries and borders present in our reality with the potential to bring together people from all walks of life. The development of a Metaverse or a ``new world'' offers a compelling opportunity to establish a space that is both all-encompassing and accessible to everyone. However a key challenge is understanding how the Metaverse can be designed from the ground up to be inclusive and accessible. This workshop aims to gain further understanding of how to create an open and inclusive Metaverse for all, while also exploring methods for its evaluation. The key outcomes of this workshop outline new opportunities for improving the inclusivity of the Metaverse, evaluation methodologies, and key considerations for designing accessible Metaverse environments and interactions.

The Metaverse has the potential to bring the world much closer together through its network of connected virtual worlds and decentralised nature. Considering its potential to reach global appeal it is important to ensure that the Metaverse is accessible for people with physical and intellectual disabilities. Building on our successful workshop at CHI'23, "Towards an Inclusive and Accessible Metaverse", this workshop intends to work towards a broad understanding of how the Metaverse can be designed in order to achieve this, along with understanding how the success of this can be evaluated. To achieve this, our workshop focuses on three core themes: 

1. conceptualisation and prototyping

2. methods and metrics for evaluating inclusivity and accessibility

3. future considerations for the Metaverse

We welcome submissions from interested researchers and practitioners for position papers (maximum 6 pages in single-column CEUR-WS Format, excluding references) which address at least one of the key theme(s) of the workshop and present original material. The paper should also include a statement on the potential goals of the research and the problem(s) it aims to address. Submissions will be made via EasyChair. For more information visit our website or contact callum.parker {at} sydney.edu.au

Papers will be peer-reviewed by an international program committee and selected based on relevance to the workshop themes and quality of the work. At least one author of each accepted position paper must attend the workshop, and all participants must register for both the workshop and for at least one day of the conference.