Deafblindness in Digital Environments and the Metaverse in 2025
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21535280Keywords:
digital accessibility, sensory disability, digital environments, metaverse, deafblindnessAbstract
Digital accessibility has advanced in parallel with technological development, especially since the consolidation of Web 2.0 and its progressive transition to Web 3.0 and immersive environments. During this process, digital environments, design models, and academic production have been adapting to innovations and their impact on the inclusion of people with disabilities. This research is based on a literature review on deafblindness and digital environments published between 2020 and 2025, which has allowed us to examine the terminology used, the dominant approaches, and the current state of the art. The results show that, although research on digital accessibility has been increasing, deafblindness remains in a secondary position, with scattered production focused on educational or support contexts. This situation contrasts with the rapid evolution of digital environments towards more complex and immersive models, highlighting a desynchronization between technological innovation, current accessibility frameworks, and specific research on deafblindness. While technological developments advance without incorporating the needs of people with deafblindness, existing research does not translate its findings into the design of inclusive digital environments, reducing its impact on the transformation of digital environments. Furthermore, the review shows that the lack of data on deafblindness makes it difficult for their forms of interaction to be taken into account in emerging digital systems, particularly those incorporating artificial intelligence.
References
Abellán, M. y Vázquez, B. (2024). Hacia una comunicación accesible en el metaverso. Pavel Sidorenko Bautista (Coords.), Elementos clave para trabajar un mensaje más accesible en el metaverso (pp. 23-30). Editorial UOC.
Adelakun, B., Majekodunmi, T., & Akintoye, O. (2024). AI and ethical accounting: Navigating challenges and opportunities. International Journal of Advanced Economics, 6(6), 224–241. https://doi.org/10.51594/ijae.v6i6.1230
Afzal, A., Khan, S., Daud, S., Ahmad, Z., & Butt, A. (2023). Addressing the Digital Divide: Access and Use of Technology in Education. Journal of Social Sciences Review, 3(2), 883–895. https://doi.org/10.54183/jssr.v3i2.326
Aparicio, D. M. S., Cedeño, E. D. V. y Yagual, E. A. D. R. (2020). La importancia de la web 3.0 y 2.0 en el desarrollo de la pedagogía educativa en tiempos de pandemia. RECIAMUC, 4(4), 13-23. https://doi.org/10.26820/reciamuc/4.(4).noviembre.2020.13-23
Ávila, M. S. y Ocaña, R. T. (2021). Desarrollo del Sistema Haptic en España para potenciar la inclusión total de las personas sordociegas. REVLES, (3), 184-186. https://doi.org/10.65121/revles3.08
Benjamins, R., Rubio, Y. y Alonso, Ch. (2023). Retos sociales y éticos del metaverso. Se abre debate. Telefónica. https://www.telefonica.com/es/sala-comunicacion/noticias/los-retos-sociales-y-eticos-del-metaverso/
Centenero de Arce, M. J. (2024). Hacia una comunicación accesible en el metaverso. Pavel Sidorenko Bautista (Coords.), Revisión de las consideraciones de la WCAG 3 sobre la accesibilidad en el metaverso actualmente. Entrevista a Emmanuelle Gutiérrez y Restrepo (pp. 15-21). Editorial UOC.
Chidiac, S. E., Reda, M. A., & Marjaba, G. E. (2024). Accessibility of the Built Environment for People with Sensory Disabilities—Review Quality and Representation of Evidence. Buildings, 14(3), 707. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14030707
FASOCIDE (2026). Federación de Asociaciones de Personas Sordociegas de España. Sordoceguera. FASOCIDE. https://www.fasocide.org/sordoceguera/
Furtado, D., Ribeiro, R. A., Piçarra, M., Seixas P., L., Duarte, C., Rodrigues, A. & Guerreiro, J. (2025). Designing and Evaluating a VR Boxing Experience with Blind People. CHI '25: Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1246, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3713374
García, H. Á. (2023). La discriminación algorítmica por razón de discapacidad. Revista internacional de pensamiento político, 18, 15-39. https://doi.org/10.46661/revintpensampolit.8103
Goel, A. K., Bakshi, R., & Agrawal, K. K. (2022). Web 3.0 and decentralized applications. Materials Proceedings, 10(1), 8. https://doi.org/10.3390/materproc2022010008
Goiri, L. L. y Rodríguez, C. R. (2023). Mejora de la experiencia de usuario mediante la inclusividad: pautas para generar contenidos web más accesibles para personas con discapacidades sensoriales. Questiones publicitarias, 6(31), 09-18. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/qp.376
Haile, T. T. (2023). Web's progression: Moving from passive content consumption to active content creation and content validation. International Journal of Business and Management, 18(6), 135-142. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v18n6p135
Hamideh Kerdar, S., Bächler, L., & Kirchhoff, B. M. (2024). The accessibility of digital technologies for people with visual impairment and blindness: a scoping review. Discover Computing, 27(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10791-024-09460-7
Harjanti, T. W., Supriati, R., & Setiyani, H. (2020). Evolusi Penggunaan Teknologi Web 3.0: Semantic Web. Journal of Information System, Graphics, Hospitality and Technology, 2(02), 54-60. https://doi.org/10.37823/insight.v2i02.107
Karimi, M., Yeganeh, N., Makarov, I., Sverrisson, A. Ö., Gunnarsson, K. F., Briem, K., Brynjólfsson, S., Kristjánsson, Á., & Unnthorsson, R. (2025). Haptic Feedback Systems for Lower-Limb Prosthetic Applications: A Review of System Design, User Experience, and Clinical Insights. Bioengineering, 12(9). https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering12090989
Kunjiapu, S., Sinnappan, P., Anor Salim, F. A., & Kunasegaran, M. (2025). Challenges and Dilemmas of Digitalization in Philippine Education: A Grassroots Perspective. Journal of Public Administration and Governance, 14(2), 232. https://doi.org/10.5296/jpag.v14i2.22325
Lepez, C. O. (2022). Metaverse and education: a panoramic review. Metaverse Basic and Applied Research, (1), 17. https://doi.org/10.56294/mr20222
Mishchenko, V., Naumenkova, S., Mishchenko, S., & Tishchenko, I. (2025). FORMATION AND FUNCTIONING OF FINANCIAL METAVERSE PLATFORMS. Financial and Credit Activity Problems of Theory and Practice, 1(60), 111–122. https://doi.org/10.55643/fcaptp.1.60.2025.4689
Murillo-Jiménez, H., Centeno-Alarcón, M., Buele, J., & Yumbla, F. (2025). Analyzing barriers to the effective implementation of technological tools in inclusive education: a scoping review. Frontiers in Education, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2025.1687664
Mwansa, G., Ngandu, M. R., & Mkwambi, Z. (2025). Bridging the digital divide: exploring the challenges and solutions for digital exclusion in rural South Africa. Discover Global Society, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44282-025-00189-2
Núñez, R. L. C., Hurtado, N. S., Vásquez, J. A. y Castillo, J. C. S. (2025). Accesibilidad tecnológica de estudiantes universitarios con sordoceguera. Revista de ciencias sociales, 31(2), 127-138. https://doi.org/10.31876/rcs.v31i2.43914
Organización Mundial de la Salud (2023). Discapacidad. Organización Mundial de la Salud. https://www.who.int/es/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/disability-and-health
Othman, A., Altınay, Z., Chemnad, K., Al-Hadhrami, T., Al-Thani, D., S Al-Khalifa, H., Hassanien, A. E., Zhang, C. Y., Chalghoumi, H., Jemni, M., Tlili, A., Altınay, F., & Obeid, M. (2024). Accessible Metaverse: A Theoretical Framework for Accessibility and Inclusion in the Metaverse. Multimodal Technologies and Interaction, 8(3), 21. https://doi.org/10.3390/mti8030021
Patel, P., Pampaniya, S., Ghosh, A., Raj, R., Karuppaih, D., & Kandasamy, S. (2025). Enhancing Accessibility Through Machine Learning: A Review on Visual and Hearing Impairment Technologies. IEEE Access, 13, 33286–33307. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2025.3539081
Petcu, A., Pahontu, B., Frunzete, M., & Stoichescu, D. A. (2023). A Secure and Decentralized Authentication Mechanism Based on Web 3.0 and Ethereum Blockchain Technology. Applied Sciences, 13(4), 2231. https://doi.org/10.3390/app13042231
Rathor, S., Zhang, M., & Im, T. (2023). Web 3.0 and Sustainability: Challenges and Research Opportunities. Sustainability, 15(20), 15126. https://doi.org/10.3390/su152015126
Reddy, K. K., Badam, R., Alam, S., & Shuaib, M. (2024). IoT-driven accessibility: A refreshable OCR-Braille solution for visually impaired and deaf-blind users through WSN. Journal of Economy and Technology, 2, 128-137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ject.2024.04.007
Rodríguez, J. (2024). Impacto de la comunicación en Twitter en el movimiento ambientalista durante la COP15. Revista de comunicación, 23(1), 485-505. https://doi.org/10.26441/RC23.1-2024-3383
Sai, S., Garg, A., & Chamola, V. (2024). Navigating the Metaverse: A Comprehensive Analysis of Consumer Electronics Prospects and Challenges. ACM Transactions on Internet Technology. https://doi.org/10.1145/3680545
Salazar, H. A., Torres, B. y Ramírez, S. O. (2023). Implementación de técnicas de accesibilidad web: normativas, estrategias y mejores prácticas. Revista Vínculos: Ciencia, tecnología y sociedad, 20(2), 3. https://revistas.udistrital.edu.co/index.php/vinculos/article/view/17158
Saqib, N. A., Salam, A. A., Atta-Ur-Rahman, & Dash, S. (2021). Reviewing risks and vulnerabilities in web 2.0 for matching security considerations in web 3.0. Journal of Discrete Mathematical Sciences and Cryptography, 24(3), 809-825. https://doi.org/10.1080/09720529.2020.1857903
Shen, M., Tan, Z., Niyato, D., Liu, Y., Kang, J., Xiong, Z., Zhu, L., Wang, W., & Shen, X. (Sherman). (2024). Artificial Intelligence for Web 3.0: A Comprehensive Survey. ACM Computing Surveys, 56(10), 1–39. https://doi.org/10.1145/3657284
Sidorenko Bautista, P. (2025). Comunicación accesible en el metaverso: Una revisión a la situación actual de las principales plataformas. Revista Prisma Social, (51), 427-441. https://doi.org/10.65598/rps.5954
Ünlü, S. C. (2024). Enhancing User Experience through AI-Driven Personalization in User Interfaces. Human Computer Interaction, 8(1), 19. https://doi.org/10.62802/m7mqmb52
Wang, C., & Si, L. (2024). The Intersection of Public Policy and Public Access: Digital Inclusion, Digital Literacy Education, and Libraries. Sustainability, 16(5), 1878. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16051878
Warnicke, C., Wahlqvist, M., Anderzén-Carlsson, A., & Sundqvist, A. S. (2022). Interventions for adults with deafblindness-an integrative review. BMC health services research, 22(1), 1594. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08958-4
Xinyun, C., Kexin, J., Chenglin, L., Potluri, V. & Jain, D. (2025). RAVEN: Realtime Accessibillity in Virtual Environments for Blind and Low-Vision People. Arxiv Preprint. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2510.06573
Zallio, M. y Clarkson, P. J. (2022). Designing the metaverse: A study on inclusión, diversity, equity, accesibility and safety for digital immersive environments. Telematics and Informatics, 75, 101909. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2022.101909
Zambrano, E. A. M. (2024). Inclusión social de personas con discapacidad en entornos digitales. Visión Académica, 2(4), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.70577/ydyczy49
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Tecnología y Creatividad Aplicada
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
