Log in, Darling! We're Going Meta-Shopping!
Our world was built with little to no accommodations for the disabled community in mind. But the metaverse is a blank slate, meaning we can make it inclusive from the get-go. While society has gotten better in accommodating everyone in the spaces that they’ve always had a right to occupy, it does come up short in certain areas. As a result, many believe the metaverse could bridge the gap. So, let’s talk about meta-shopping for inclusivity.
Meta-Retail for Inclusivity
Shopping is fun. The metaverse is fun. But combine the two and you could have something that goes beyond fun, something accessible to everyone equally.
Clothes
Shopping for clothes could be very stressful for people with disabilities, especially mobility disabilities. However, being able to log in from the comfort of your home to the metaverse to shop for your clothes could make the experience fun and less strenuous on your mind and body. Beyond being able to browse the racks with ease, you could shop for the item that is exactly what you need, down to the last stitch. And the digital marketing in the metaverse is a stroke of genius, it’ll help you get what what you need, especially with the integration of ChatGPT.
Let’s say you present a leg length discrepancy, where one leg is shorter than the other (also known as anisomelia or short-leg syndrome). This condition means that you are looking for specific things in your clothes. Through the metaverse, you could input and then save your measurements. Additionally, maybe one day, using augmented reality (AR), you could hold up the phone to the mirror and see a preview of what the pants might look like on you. nevertheless, with mass customization, these pants would be made readily available for anyone who would need them.
Furniture
We like to make ourselves and our homes pretty. But the task could feel herculean for a disabled person. Can you imagine going to the store, picking something that you believe will fit, and hauling it back home, just for it to be too big to fit? There’s hope that through AR and the metaverse, you could check if the item will fit, be it physically or aesthetically.
a little person, for example, could find it challenging to appropriately measure the space where they want a table to go. However, using AR or even virtual reality (VR), they could see if a listed item would fit. Additionally, a person relying on a wheelchair might find it easier to see how a vase might fit their funky living room before purchasing it. Thus, avoiding complications.
Final Thoughts
As society becomes more aware of the previous generations’ shortcomings in building the world, it is important to be intentionally inclusive in our technologies. We have the resources to give an equal experience to all users. So, we should seize it. These things may seem unimportant or mundane to an able-bodied person. But if we’re looking at it from the communities’ point of view, the metaverse could dissolve a myriad of obstacles.
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