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
Alan Chuter | 19/06/2007 at 8:51 | Permalink
This sounds like an interesting developement. Is there a transcipt or slides of Judy’s presentation? For those of us who still hang out in the real world.
Anya Daligdig | 19/06/2007 at 14:50 | Permalink
I believe you’ve got something wrong in your comment about the SL Lindens to US dollars stats. One US dollar is worth roughly 274 Lindens.
Henny | 22/06/2007 at 9:47 | Permalink
Hi Alan, not sure if there is a copy of the presentation available but I’ll certainly post it if Judy has made it publicly available.
Anya, thanks for the correction, not sure how that happened!
Henny | 22/06/2007 at 17:14 | Permalink
I’ve found a write up on Judy’s Brewers and Bruce Bailey’s presentation on the Second Life News Network. I’ve also added a link from the main post to it.