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iLRN ILLUMINATORS FORUM #8

The weekly scanning forum supporting the iLRN Immersive Futures — State of XR & Immersive Learning 2026 report

Episode Title

Accessibility as Infrastructure: Governing Interoperability and Designing for All

(If access fails at the platform layer, who is actually excluded?)

YouTube Recording link: [To be added]

Purpose

To convene educational leaders and immersive learning professionals around a structural shift in the field:

Accessibility is no longer a downstream accommodation. It is becoming a design baseline — a systems requirement shaping interoperability, governance, and institutional strategy.

This episode situates accessibility within platform architecture, co-design philosophy, and emergent cultural practice — advancing disciplined sense-making in support of the 2026 State of XR & Immersive Learning report.

Date

[Insert Date]

Time

11:00–12:00 PM Pacific / 2:00–3:00 PM Eastern / 7:00–8:00 PM UK

Media

Live webinar + recording + Codex forum discussion

Host

Jonathon Richter, Ed.D.

Narrative Frame

Across education, access barriers are rarely singular. They are structural:

  • Platform incompatibility

  • Cost barriers

  • Hardware inequities

  • Bandwidth limitations

  • Sensory and cognitive load mismatches

  • Institutional procurement constraints

  • Cultural misalignment

When immersive systems fail to account for these variables, exclusion is not incidental — it is engineered.

The iLRN Circle of Scholars’ 2025–2026 signal cards identify a clear inflection point:

Accessibility is moving from accommodation to canon.

Not as rhetoric. As infrastructure.

Special Guest

Noah Glaser

University of Missouri

Dr. Glaser’s work centers on accessible game design developed through co-design models with queer and disabled creators. His approach positions lived experience not as case study, but as design intelligence.

Importantly, this conversation is not framed around deficit or remediation. It is about:

  • Designing immersive systems that assume variability

  • Shifting authorship toward those historically constrained by design norms

  • Building environments that reduce structural friction for all learners

For institutional leaders, the implications are strategic:

  • What does it mean to treat accessibility as quality assurance?

  • How does co-design alter procurement and production models?

  • How do we measure “access” beyond compliance metrics?

This session introduces the contours of this work without pre-empting conclusions — inviting dialogue grounded in research, governance, and practice.

Signal Volley #1

Interoperability & Platform Governance

Accessibility collapses if platforms cannot interoperate.

When immersive tools operate in silos:

  • Credentials do not transfer

  • Identity systems fragment

  • Assistive configurations reset

  • Data portability disappears

Governance questions follow:

  • Who is responsible for continuity of learner access across platforms?

  • How do standards bodies and institutions align?

  • What procurement policies reinforce or undermine inclusive ecosystems?

Accessibility at scale requires interoperable architecture.

Signal Volley #2 (2025 Trend)

Innovation in Unregulated Spaces

XR tools are now deployed in environments where regulatory frameworks did not previously exist — informal learning networks, decentralized creator platforms, hybrid AI/XR spaces.

When regulation lags innovation:

  • Access norms become platform-dependent

  • Safety and privacy standards vary

  • Educational institutions must decide how to engage without formal oversight

The absence of governance does not mean neutrality; it redistributes risk.

Signal Volley #3 (Early 2026 Horizon)

Emergent Cultures & Plural Ontologies

Immersive environments are cultivating new participation norms and micro-cultures.

Accessibility intersects here as well:

  • Who feels welcome?

  • Which interaction norms become default?

  • What assumptions about embodiment are encoded in design?

Emergent cultures can expand educational pluralism — or unintentionally narrow it.

Educational leadership requires cultural literacy alongside technical literacy.

Why This Episode Matters

For immersive learning professionals, the question is not whether accessibility is important.

The question is whether it is:

  • Treated as retrofit

  • Embedded in architecture

  • Reflected in governance

  • Or measured as institutional performance

Accessibility as infrastructure aligns with interoperability, procurement policy, platform governance, and quality assurance.

It is not a special-interest issue.
It is a systems design issue.

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