Projects:

Virtual Ability Island

Virtual Ability Island provides the home for our new resident orientation and training, developed for people with disabilities or chronic illnesses.  Here, new residents can learn Second Life^® fundamentals in an accessibility-friendly environment, and existing residents can receive ongoing training and information about health-related issues and support groups.  This island was created through a partnership with the Alliance Library System.

Through the new account signup process on our web site, or through the secondlife.com Community Gateway program, new residents have their avatar arrive at the beginning of the New Resident Orientation Course on Virtual Ability Island when they log in to Second Life^® for the first time.

There, the new resident begins a self guided training course that teaches the basic virtual world skills of movement, communication, inventory, orienting and appearance.

More experienced residents can learn additional skills at the Advanced Tutorials area, including photography, creating a profile, virtual world money, clothing, groups, society, and textures.

If assistance is needed during the first hours, residents can call on a member of the SecondAbility Mentor group to come chat with them.

Virtual Ability island also contains two small classrooms for training and discussion groups, and a large accessible auditorium for community meetings and presentations.

Cape Able 

Cape Able island within Second Life^® is a haven for deaf, hard of hearing and people with disabilities. It is owned by Virtual Ability, Inc.

A serene residential island, Cape Able also houses a beautiful art gallery, which showcases exhibits of deaf and disabled artists from both real life and Second Life.

Second Life^®'s first Deaf Chat Coffee House can be found on Cape Able. It’s a relaxing place for anyone to meet with friends and join in some lively conversations.

Cape Able offers a Service Center, providing links to support resources both inworld and in real life for people with a wide range of disabilities.

Presentations on hearing loss and disability related issues are given at the comfortable discussion area. Parties, impromptu dancing and meeting friends in the neighborhood park are frequent occurrences.

Come and see, stay and join us. "We Hear You!" 

AVESS

Virtual Ability, Inc. and ADL Company proudly announce the initiation of the AVESS (Amputee Virtual Environment Support Space) Project. AVESS is funded by the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC).^* The purpose of this project is to establish best practices and protocols for the provision of on-line peer-to-peer support services for military amputees and their families. The first phase of this project will create demonstration environments in Second Life^®, although the final product will be on a stand-alone server that the Army can control behind its own firewalls.

Virtual worlds can provide military amputees with an opportunity to enhance their overall quality of life, expedite their reintegration into society, and improve their physical and mental wellness. While the rehabilitation goal is for the soldier to return to active duty, many return to their civilian communities. Spouses and family members of military amputees often become their caregivers after they are released from military hospitals and rehabilitation programs.

Peer support groups help recent amputees gain the experience and confidence and practice the skills necessary to proceed with their rehabilitation. Support groups can also assist family members and spouses with their caregiving issues and concerns. A virtual world environment may facilitate ongoing care and support, especially for amputees who live far from rehabilitation facilities.

^* This work is supported by the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command under Contract "W81XWH-09- P-0731."  The views, opinions and/or findings expressed above are those of the author(s) and should not be construed as an official Department of the Army position, policy or decision unless so designated by other documentation.

Field Trips

Second Life^® is full of amazing educational and entertainment venues. The VAI Field Trip program allows community members to experience a guided tour of some of the best and most enjoyable sites, while improving basic Second Life^® skills such as using the camera or operating pose balls. Field Trips are advertised in-world and are open to all group members.

Brock Levee manages the VAI Field Trips. He is very patient and loves to help, teach, mentor, and show people what Second Life^® has to offer them. Members have enjoyed field trips to go ice skating and to view the Loch Ness Monster. We have gone horseback riding through areas decorated for Halloween, and taken a hot-air balloon tour of Africa. You never know what exciting virtual activity we will be involved in next!

Universal Design for Virtual Worlds

Coming Soon...

Greeter Program

New residents in a community are more likely to stay and engage with community members if they are greeted into the group. New residents to a virtual world often need assistance in learning how to function in it, especially if they have disabilities and use assistive technology. The VAI Greeter program offers a welcome to new community members. Greeters are available to show new residents our facilities in Second Life^®, and provide support as they learn how to create a virtual existence for themselves, whether that means going shopping, teaching building, or providing landmarks for music venues for newcomers.

VAI Greeters also act as hosts and hostesses for events on Virtual Ability Island. They provide valuable assistance to audience members before and during the event, such as helping them set their preferences or update their video capabilities. Some of our Greeters are bi- or multi-lingual, and can assist residents whose native language is not English.

VAI Greeters who are also SecondAbility Mentors frequently volunteer on the New Resident Orientation Path by responding to calls for assistance from new residents. They refer new avatars to inworld disability resources if needed to make their SL experiences more rewarding.

The VAI Greeter Program is run by Dead Ghost and Ladyslipper Constantine. Dead is a longtime mentor who enjoys helping people, and often introduces new people to the Virtual Ability community.  Ladyslipper is a RL retired teacher who is deaf but hears with a cochlear Implant.

Transcription Services

When presentations are given in Voice, those in the audience who are deaf or hearing impaired, or whose native language is not that of the speaker, may not know what is being discussed. Similarly, when presentations are given in text, those who are dyslexic or have low vision may have difficulty following the speaker’s presentation.

Virtual Ability provides transcription services within Second Life to assist in both these directions. Voice-to-text (V2T) transcription provides a typed meaning-for-meaning (not word-for-word) real-time text for the audience to follow. Many event organizers appreciate having a typed transcript of spoken presentations. Text-to-voice (T2V) transcriptionists read aloud the text offered by the presenter.

VAI’s transcription service is headed by LoriVonne Lustre and Menolly Riederer. They provide weekly transcription services for the Metanomics show, as well as for other events in Second Life^®.

LoriVonne has long been an advocate for persons with disabilities in her home province of Nova Scotia.   She initiated the project that brought closed-captioning to educational videos at the Nova Scotia Community College where she works supporting online learning and educational technologies.

Menolly is based in Australia and spent 5 years working with one of the major Australian television Networks providing Closed Captioning for Live Current Affairs and TV shows.  When Menolly learned of V2T transcription, the Second Life^® equivalent of closed captioning, she immediately joined the Virtual Ability team to assist in March 2009.

For more information on VAI transcription services, please contact Gentle Heron in world, or use the contact form on this web site.

Presentations

The Virtual Ability community endorses active learning. To support learning, a varied set of presentations are offered within Second Life^® in the accessible cabanas and auditorium on Virtual Ability Island. Some presentations are lectures with question-and-answer sessions, some are discussion groups or panels, and some are classes or short activity sessions. Most are one-time events, although some, such as the Book Club, are ongoing.

iSkye Silverweb heads the Presentation program for VAI. She is Deaf and enjoys mentoring new residents as well as encouraging those with disabilities to discover, develop and, most of all, share their knowledge and skills, thus enabling themselves and others to be exposed to new experiences and information.

Recent presentations have included information provided by the Job Accommodation Network, a discussion on mammography, a series of panels on caregiving, a panel discussion of standing against stigma, and a series of presentations on legal protections for persons with disabilities in honor of ADA Day.  Additional in-world sessions include Eme Capalini and Gentle Heron discussed accessibility issues in fashion design with SL couturiers. Ladyslipper Constantine and Treasure Ballinger presented about how to communicate with someone who is deaf, and JeniAnn Ametza and Gentle presented about educational accommodations for students with disabilities.

Virtual Ability members also hold presentations for general audiences in the real world. Gentle Heron was part of panels on healthcare in virtual worlds and characteristics of virtual communities, and Treasure Ballinger presented on accessibility issues in virtual worlds at the 2009 SLCC conference in San Francisco. Gentle has also presented "How to Provide Health Care Information to Clients within a Virtual World" to the Communications Division of Johnson & Johnson, "The Use of Virtual Reality by People with Disabilities" to the Health 2.0 Conference, and been interviewed about "The Importance of Virtual Worlds to People with Disabilities" on the Voice of America, and "Benefits to People with Disabilities of Participating in Virtual Communities" on SBS Television (Australia).

VAI's presenters intend to educate others about disability issues, while putting a human face on those issues.

Virtual Ability Research Group 

The Virtual Ability Research Group encourages, promotes, supports and disseminates sound research activities within disabilities communities in Second Life^®.  This includes providing researchers with access to disabled communities for legitimate research purposes when possible.

We seek to enable people within disability communities to give back to the research communities that try to improve lives. We assist in research, teaching and service promotion and tenure activities when appropriate.  We promote sound and appropriate research agendas in disability research and seek to develop quantifiable and repeatable data to show the effects that Second Life^® has for people with disabilities.  We can provide consultation to researchers and funders on disability issues.  We help sustain and perpetuate high-quality disability research and services in Second Life^®.

Membership in the Virtual Ability Research Group is open to professional researchers and their students from the corporate, governmental, non-governmental and academic sectors.  To join, send an IM to Gabrielli Rossini inworld.