Virtual
Ability, Inc. is a non-profit organization helping disabled people in Second
Life ©. Gentle Heron is the Chairman of the Board of Virtual Ability, running
things both on the real Life (RL) and Second Life (SL) side.
As Virtual Ability
is about to launch one of their two main annual conferences, Stareyes Galaxy
had an opportunity to have a chat with Gentle, about Virtual Ability and the
life of people with disabilities on SL.
I
met Gentle at the Welcome Center of Virtual Ability Island, which is the main
property of Virtual Ability. They also have the Health Info Island, which is a
resource for health information in general, as well as two residential islands
that help finance the SL operations. Gentle Heron: “Virtual Ability, Inc. is what we call in the US a 501(c)3 meaning it's
a federally recognized charitable corporation. We accept donations, but the
main sources of our funding are research projects, grants, and other projects
we take on.”
SLE: Hello Gentle,
and thank you so much for doing this. I know it is an ungodly early time for
you. Can you describe your role in all this?
Gentle: I am the founder of
Virtual Ability, Inc. and I have the honor and pleasure of leading the SL
Virtual Ability community as well.
SLE: We all have seen
some of the decline in businesses getting on SL. Is the support or the
willingness of disabled people also declining?
Gentle: Actually we are
seeing growth in our sector! Virtual Ability and the projects we work with are
increasing. Our mission is inside Second Life, but our funding and professional
contacts are outside Second Life.
SLE: You also have a
volunteer network in-world. How large is it?
Gentle: Our Virtual Ability
group numbers over 800, of which I'd say 1/10 are active at some level. That is
a normal percentage for communities. As to the number of PWD [people with
disabilities] in SL, it is unknown. Linden Lab does not collect that information.
However, a survey was done of "casual online gamers" (I know, not the
same) and in their population 1 out of 5 people had some form of disability.
And the population of those with a disability tended toward the more severe
disabilities, more so than in the general population.
SLE: Do you have an
estimate of how many people use your services and facilities?
Gentle: We do not ask, when
people use our facilities, if they are disabled or not. In fact, many college
profs use the New Resident Orientation Center on Virtual Ability island to
bring in their students, instead of bringing them in through secondlife.com
because it's safer and more functional training.
SLE: I have seen
people on SL riding wheelchairs and such, to accentuate their condition, but I
would guess most avatars with disabilities still want to portray a
"normal" avatar.
Gentle: Actually that's
interesting. I use a power wheelchair now, but most of my life I was a walker.
I don't think of myself as being in a wheelchair. So my avatar enjoys walking
in SL. We see that more of our folks who've been in wheelchairs all their
lives, whose body image includes that chair, as using them in SL. The thing
that is cool about SL Is that you can CHOOSE how you appear. You can change
gender, species, even become an inanimate object if you choose. There are
several research projects going on about identity, self-portrayal, and body
image among people with disabilities in SL. Those will be fascinating to
follow.
SLE: Disability is
not a common subject of discussion in SL. Do you feel it gets glossed over too
easily?
Gentle: You do not need the
qualifier "in SL" on that first sentence. Disability is a fact of
life, Stareyes. It is the only minority status you can join just by stepping
wrong off the curb. There are temporary disabilities, such as breaking a leg,
as well as permanent ones, and most of us will become more disabled as we age.
So we NEED to do a better job of discussing it.
SLE: Of course, that
is the case, but - in real life when you see a person in a wheelchair, or with
a cane, you cannot ignore it. With the freedom of avatar portrayal on SL,
people don't think someone might have a condition like this.
Gentle: That is one of the
purposes of Virtual Ability, outreach to the currently non-disabled populations.
SLE: About SL and how
it helps people - I ran across a network volunteer who helped people with
visual condition to use text-based viewers. People with hearing disability have
an easier time interacting with the SL viewer. What do you think Linden Lab
ought to improve, to better enable access to SL for PWD?
Gentle: Actually, we've
found that Linden viewer to be reasonably accessible! Often when people say
it's not, they do not know all its features, or they are struggling to
understand how to interface their assistive technology with it.
We
moved on to the Sojourner Auditorium on the island to discuss Virtual Ability’s
upcoming event, the third annual
International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference which will be held on the Virtual Ability
Island in Second Life on Friday 27th and Saturday
28th September. The theme of the conference is “Let Me In,” and it
focuses on accessibility of buildings and other spaces as well as services for
people with disabilities. There will be presentations and panels with delegates
from all over the world. “Our first presenter on Saturday at the
conference is from Ghana, and will be on at 6am SLT!” The Sojourner
Auditorium design and the conference logistics reflect the theme of
accessibility. “It was designed to be
totally accessible, and a model for accessible facilities in RL as well. We
always have greeters standing in the aisles to assist people – for instance,
each seat cushion is individually numbered, as our blind members can ‘see’ the
cushions, but can't tell if someone is already sitting on them, so a greeter
can tell them in IM, ‘seat 1C is open’ and they can sit on that one. Greeters
also help our folks with behavior issues to maintain proper meeting decorum.”
The
tour I was given included parts of the Health Info Island as well as the two
residential sims, Cape Able and Cape Serenity. Health Info Island is a resource
to help avatars find information on health and wellness issues and related
resources. The information is arranged in an array of interactive posters. Cape
Able hosts two art galleries displaying the works of disabled SL artists,
currently one has an exhibition of the works of Ronin1 Shippe. The other is the
SL branch of the RL Fenimore Gallery in New York. “So here we have 2 public galleries for the enjoyment of the general
public... and also to show that people with Disabilities also have ABILITIES
that we choose to focus on.” On Cape Serenity, there is a library with
classic works of literature as well as those of disabled SL authors. These work
as note card or link givers, and some of the links also work as audio books.
I
enjoyed the tour and my appreciation to Gentle Heron and the whole of Virtual
Ability, Inc. intensified as we continued discussing the way people with
disabilities can be helped by becoming active in virtual worlds, such as SL.
Research evidence shows that well-being indicators rose with the time avatars
spent time on SL. With all the quirks and frivolities sometimes taking the main
attention on SL, it is good to see that there are caring avatars such as Gentle
Heron who strive to help and make SL a better place for all, disabled or not.
Health
Info Island:
Virtual
Ability, Inc. home page:
IDRAC
2013 Conference (September 27th to 28th):
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