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 created demonstration environments in Second Life^®. Phase Two will be the creation of a four-sim supportive environment in SL.

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.

College Open Textbook Project 

In spring 2010, the Hewlett-funded Community College Open Textbooks Collaborative contracted with Virtual Ability, Inc. to review 60 open textbooks for college students (both websites and PDF documents) regarding accessibility. Since increasing numbers of college students have some kind of disability, accessibility is an important aspect of evaluating instructional materials.

VAI was selected in part because of the large group of experienced disabled persons we involved as evaluators. After extensive training, VAI evaluators delivered high-quality reports using consistent metrics. The biggest success factor for this project was an extremely motivated SL team, contributing to improvements for RL students with disabilities. This was an SL-based project with a positive value in real life.

Universal Design of Virtual Worlds

Accessibility is an issue of increasing interest to residents of virtual worlds. The accessibility of a virtual world is a function of the design of structures and landscapes inside the world.

Virtual Ability recognizes three valid approaches to accessibility of virtual worlds, and has written a paper about this topic published in the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research. In certain circumstances it is appropriate to either ignore or emulate real world accessibility standards. In its builds, Virtual Ability chooses to employ a third approach, which we call Universal Design of Virtual Worlds.

Universal Design (UD) is the construction of environments so that all people may use them without needing specialized designs as adaptations for disabilities. The principles of UD benefit all users by focusing on common needs of all people to the greatest extent possible, not just those with disabilities. UD avoids segregating those who need adaptations, because UD is appropriate for all users.

Consulting services regarding virtual world accessibility provided by Virtual Ability are premised on the concept of Universal Design of Virtual Worlds. For more information, please contact Eme Capalini in Second Life, or send an email to info@virtualability.org

VAI Mentors and Greeters

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.

VAI Mentors are trained to assist those with disabilities who come into Second Life^®.  Mentors provide support as the new resident learns how to create a virtual existence, whether that means going shopping, teaching building skills, or providing landmarks for music venues.  Mentors also assist with new residents who have a disability and need to learn what assistive technology and in-world support resources may be available to them.

VAI Greeters act as hosts and hostesses for Virtual Ability events. They provide assistance to audience members before and during an event, such as helping them set their preferences or update their video capabilities.

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.

Virtual Ability community members presented at numerous conferences in 2010, including the Second Life Community Convention in Boston, the Second Life Birthday celebration, ISTE (International Society of Technology Educators), and Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education. Virtual Ability was featured at the Health Information Technology Scholars program at the University of Colorado, College of Nursing.

Virtual Ability community members also presented to classes on topics ranging from Universal Design, to assistive technology, to health-related communication in virtual worlds, to artists with disabilities. Our community members participated in focus groups for student nurses, where the students questioned us about many aspects of health care for persons with disabilities.

Some Virtual Ability community members have published professional papers, and there’s an awesome video about our AVESS project on YouTube. To find out more about these presentations and publications, please see our Links page.

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. 

 Other Projects

The Virtual Ability community provided input to the US Access Board on the very important issue of new standards being developed about diagnostic medical equipment. Virtual Ability's input was one of many data points being considered by the Access Board, which is the federal agency that establishes standards for accessibility.

And of course, Virtual Ability sponsors at least one community activity each week within Second Life. Our calendar of events includes educational presentations such as the annual ADA Day celebration, lectures, classes, and discussions, as well as entertainment, including themed events, art gallery openings, and dance parties.