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Second Life for the Disabled

During the past several weeks, I’ve undergone a rather unscientific study of virtual worlds users. Of particular interest has been the use of Second Life among people with some form of a disability. I’ve spoken with folks who have hearing impairments, Asperger’s disorder/autism, cognitive challenges and limited mobility.

I have already written about the value that Second Life provides to people with cognitive disabilities. Users can interact in a social situation, testing their behavioral skills without the threatening consequence of awkwardness or discrimination. This article from January details the use of virtual worlds as therapy, as researched by the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas:

Researchers in Dallas conduct brain-imaging and neurocognitive tests on the patients before and after the virtual-world therapy sessions. The three patients they have tested so far have shown improvements in several areas, including “social appropriateness.” They are less likely, for instance, to make inappropriate jokes and more likely to be able to read a person’s body language.

Matt Kratz, a 35-year-old graduate student with Asperger’s syndrome who has been treated in the program, says he feels more confident making small talk, especially with women, since practicing in virtual reality. “I’m usually not good with someone face to face,” he says. “I tend to feel awkward and put my foot in my mouth.”

Also of interest is the use of Second Life by the hearing impaired. A number of deaf SL users brought to my attention something called SiSi (Say It Sign It), an IBM-developed platform that translates spoken or written works into British Sign Language.

SiSi is intriguing in that it uses speech recognition technology to animate an avatar in real time; already the Royal National Institute for Deaf people has endorsed the use of SiSi, and there are plans to integrate translation features into the prototype. Since it cannot be assumed that all hearing impaired users have access to chat or voice commands, this may be a development to watch.

The Second Life Accessibility Wiki is a decent resource to monitor continued research in this domain space.