[Accessibility_sig] Second Life issues

[Kel Smith]

Hello Jan,

 

Great question. There are surprising numbers of Second Life users with
various forms of disability. From my investigation (and I don't pretend to
have conclusive data on this, as this is merely culled from personal
research), such groups include the following:

 

.         People who use virtual worlds to recover from sickness or
disability, to either seek community or gain knowledge -
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003931084_netavatar07.htm
l

 

.         People with Asperger's or other forms of autism, who learn how to
read social clues through avatar instructions and practice interaction
skills in a low-risk setting -
http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/localnews/news8/stories/wfaa08011
1_lj_brady.11fb5bac.html

 

.         People with hearing impairments who use an IBM-developed platform
called SiSi (Say It Sign It), which translates spoken or written works into
British Sign Language - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6993326.stm

 

.         Of most recent intrigue might be the launch of the Virtual Ability
Island, an accessibility-friendly SL environment providing fellowship and
training opportunities. This might be a good model for study. While at the
VAI opening, I had the opportunity to speak with a number of
visually-impaired SL users. They were very happy to describe their SL
experiences to me. For example, the SL chat window is picked up by
screen-reading software (albeit slowly), and they have found keyboard
workarounds to enable such features as mouse views. Here's the URL with the
announcement -
http://digicmb.blogspot.com/2008/08/virtual-ability-island-grand-opening.htm
l

 

For more information, you might find this site exploring the use of SL by
the visually impaired to be of interest -
http://blindsecondlife.blogspot.com/. You might also have some success
perusing the Second Life Accessibility Wiki at
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Accessibility. 

 

I don't know how other schools or institutions are dealing with this issue;
my guess is that SL is considered a very new paradigm in which to operate,
and folks are just now coming to grips with its challenges and
possibilities. An analogy can be drawn to the early days of the Web, with
one notable exception: bare-bones HTML results an accessible digital
experience by default, and the same cannot be said of virtual worlds. It
will be interesting to see how this plays out over time. Could we one day
see a commercial retailer sued for providing an inaccessible transactional
experience in SL?

 

Hope this is helpful, Jan. Good luck and all the best,

 

Kel Smith

Principal, Anikto LLC

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

215.285.2274

 <mailto:Kel.Smith at anikto.com> Kel.Smith at anikto.com

 <http://www.anikto.com/wordpress> http://www.anikto.com/

 

From: accessibility_sig-bounces at knowbility.org
[mailto:accessibility_sig-bounces at knowbility.org] On Behalf Of Jan Heck
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 5:45 PM
To: Alternate Media List; Knowbility Accessibility-SIG; WebAIM Discussion
List
Subject: [Accessibility_sig] Second Life issues

 

Greetings, and please excuse cross-postings,

 

My college campus is wanting to roll out a Second Life "virtual campus" this
summer.  They are aware that whatever info is posted there must be posted on
our regular Web site as well, so that critical info is accessible to
everyone.  However, I have read and heard that Second Life is not very
accessible at all, and I'm concerned about offering its social environment
(avatars, chat, etc.) that is only accessible to some, but not all, students
(i.e., disabled students may not be able to participate because Second Life
is not accessible to their assistive technology).

 

If that is correct (and please do correct me if I'm wrong), then how are
other campuses dealing with the Second Life accessibility issue?  One of the
management folks spearheading the project says that we are pretty much
forced to do this in order to remain competitive, so many colleges are doing
it.

 

Comments?

 

--

Jan Heck

jan at id4theweb.com

 

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