Whose time is a body allowed? Virtual reality, aging, and temporal justice

Virtual reality is increasingly being used to support physical activity, rehabilitation, and participation in later life. Virtual reality-based interventions also shape the temporal conditions of participation through pacing, interruption, progression, recovery, and support requirements. Temporal justice offers a way to examine these conditions through three related dimensions: temporal autonomy; the fit between system rhythms and changing capacities; and the distribution of temporal authority and time-related work among older adults, caregivers, practitioners, and institutions. Temporal demands become justice-relevant when they are insufficiently justified or disproportionate, when foreseeable differences in capacity cannot reasonably be accommodated, or when the work required for participation is distributed without adequate recognition or support. A full account of participation would therefore include time-to-start, changing support requirements, interruption and re-entry, technical and symptom-related recovery, caregiver or staff support time, and reasons for discontinuation alongside conventional outcomes. A temporally just virtual reality system supports movement while allowing older adults to remain authors of their own pace within justified therapeutic and safety constraints.