Web Access Centre Blog

I spotted Using Virtual Worlds and Emerging Technologies for People with Disabilities on Upcoming this Friday, 29th of February. The free event will be held online with live discussion in Second Life at 9am PST (slurl) as well as a follow-up discussion for the rest of the day, 10AM PST- 6PM PST, in TechSoup’s Accessible Technology & Public Computing forum.

Simon Stevens (aka Simon Walsh in Second Life) will be speaking about his work in Second Life. Simon, who has cerebral palsy manages the Wheelies nightclub for people with disabilities in Second Life and the Second Ability Second Life simulator.

Topics that will be covered during the rest of the day in the TechSoup forum include:

• Innovative ways that emerging technologies are making technology more accessible for people with disabilities
• Ways people with disabilities use technologies to expand their communities?
• How can we work to make accessibility a design priority in the virtual world as well as the real world?
• What are some free resources to help people with disabilities find accessible technology tools?
• How can nonprofit organizations help make technology more accessible for people with disabilities?

Hope to see some of you there.

Second Life has drawn a lot of attention from accessibility circles this year and has been a hot topic of conversation across the blogsphere. While there are technical barriers of access for some groups of disabled people such as people with sight problems there are some huge benefits for others.

This video shows Judith, who has cerebral palsy, being interviewed about her Second Life experience by Roger Hudson and Russ who runs the Web Standards Group mailing list. Judith uses a head wand and keyboard to use a computer and spends a lot of time at Wheelies in SL, a club set up by Simon Walsh who also has cerebral palsy. In Simon’s own words, “Wheelies aims to make guests feel comfortable about disability as well as dancing and just plain having a good time”. I’ve spent a lot of time there myself hanging out with Simon listening to the resident DJ Cataplexia Numbers and other great acts who play live. You can even borrow a wheelchair from a line up just outside the front door.

View the Wheeling in Second Life video on YouTube and read the transcript on UI Access.

Thank you to Roger, Russ, Judith and Simon for this!

At Oz-IA last weekend, the Australia Information Architecture conference in Sydney, Gary Bunker and Gabriele Hermansson presented on User Research in Virtual Worlds.

They talked about how their company Hyrdo, have set out to build a research platform to allow user testing within virtual worlds, not only for their experiences there but also of products in real life. This is a great idea on so many levels. Firstly, user testing can be daunting to set up, it can be hard to get cross cultural input or people may feel out of their comfort zone. What struck me as really exciting however is the idea of being able to carry out user testing by people with disabilities in virtual worlds.

I’ve wanted to see testing of the grid by users with disabilities in Second Life for a while and have been informally chatting to people there about their experiences. You have a community of Residents who are already familiar with the world who are excited about what they can do there and its lack of real life constraints. Being able to solve problems of access through the combined efforts of Residents themselves and trained experts is a positive and effective way forward. Testing in-world also removes some of the potential issues around testing by people with disabilities in real life such as:

• Travel and costs
• Supplying equipment, assistive technologies and support
• Payment and possible conflict of interest if a tester already earns a salary or is on benefits. Presumably payment in Linden Dollars transcends these issues.

Recently there have been some interesting projects set up looking at access for users with visual impairments most notably IBM announcing research in opening up virtual worlds to the blind. Involving users themeselves is essential in any design project but especially so when it comes to users with disabilities.

I’ve been hanging out in the virtual world Second Life a lot recently wrapping my head around all the amazing things you can do there. Something that’s really struck me however is how this could be a real opportunity for people who are restricted in some way in their day to day lives.

Working as a Web Accessibility Consultant this is hardly surprising but what really got me excited was thinking of the opportunities that it could give a friend of mine, Sam, who was paralysed in a car accident a couple of years ago. Imagine if he could hang out in Second Life, meet people, go to concerts, take courses, fly, earn his own money, even play football with his Dad.

To do all this though Second Life needs to be accessible which, from what I have seen so far, it isn’t fully so I am currently researching how Second Life fairs in terms of accessibility from the perspective of all users including people with mobility, visual, hearing and cognitive impairments. To do this though I need your help. Rather than just put on my auditors hat I’d like to also hear what your experiences are with Second Life including the good as well as the bad, what you find troublesome, what features you like most and if you use an access technology or change your browser settings.

If you’d like to share you thoughts then leave a comment here or send an email to accesssecondlife@gmail.com.

A few days ago Judy Brewer, Director of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), gave a presentation on “Accessibility in the 3-D Environment: Virtual Worlds and People with Disabilities” in Second Life. She was also joined by Bruce Bailey (Phivo8 Writer in SL) who is an Accessibility IT Specialist on the United States Access Board. A write up of the presentation can be read on the Second Life News Network.

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and maintained by its residents. Described as a “vast digital continent” it is a place where your avatar, your online persona, can buy land, build houses, meet people, fly, go to concerts and generally just hang out. You’re as likely to get chatting to a man wandering about in a shopping trolley as you are with somebody with a lion’s head dressed in a ball gown - the best way to describe it is like being at a festival.

The opportunity that Second Life offers to people otherwise constrained by first life is enormous. If, for some reason you are unable to easily leave the house you suddenly have this whole new world open up before you. With it’s own currency, Linden Dollars, Second Life also offers some very real opportunities to make a living as well. People trade in land, buy and sell art as well as clothes and accessories for avatars. You name it you can create it, sell it and buy it. A quick look at the Second Life home page shows that $211,060 Linden Dollars was spent in the last 24 hours alone which equates to US $1,703,488.

But can everybody really access all areas? Making virtual worlds accessible has always been a challenge and Second Life is no different especially now it is open-source. Peter Abrahams of Bloor Research wrote about “Second Life open-source accessible client“ earlier this year which has opened the debate on the accessibility of Second Life and made a list of suggestions of how to achieve this.

Over the coming weeks I’ll be having a look at Second Life from different user’s perspectives and am interested in hearing about anyone else’s experiences.

Already a resident is Second Life? Then teleport to the venue now. Alternatively try is for yourself and sign up to Second Life