Virtual Reality (VR) is an emerging technological novelty and is popularly being used to improve people’s quality of life. VR offers miraculous opportunities to help manage terminal illness that affect cognitive behavior and make learning more accessible to people with disabilities. It has been proven to be an immersive technology that helps adapt learning experiences and levels the playing field for people with disabilities. At Chisel, we are currently utilizing VR as a medium to enhance and support human well-being, especially for people with disabilities and disorders like aphasia, dementia and depression. 

Rehabilitation of people with disabilities has become a popular research domain in HCI leading to the emergence of assistive  devices. Assistive technology can help people with certain disabilities to function better and improve their quality of life, helping them work, communicate and learn efficiently while maintaining or improving their capabilities. Focusing on cognitive, sensory and learning disabilities, we are currently working on improving the quality of life of children with autism, dyslexia and vision impairment. 

HCI4D is an exciting and emerging field in under-resourced and under-developed countries. It is imperative that the multicultural environment and the user be kept in mind when designing specifically for under-developed regions as products built for the western world will not necessarily translate successfully in developing countries. The illiteracy rates, especially in terms of technology are usually high and have to be carefully considered as the main goal is to empower the users in rural areas. Building on various HCI philosophies and practices, we use tools such as Design Thinking, Iterative Design and User Centered Design to create useful and helpful products for rural communities. 

The progressive curve of technological solutions, the past few years in the medical field is quite impressive but a lot more work is needed to improve healthcare, especially in countries where a majority of mental illnesses and brain disorders are still a taboo subject like depression, anxiety, autism etc.