Virtual Ability Island in Second Life
Today marks the grand opening of Virtual Ability Island, an accessibility-friendly virtual world experience in Second Life created by the Alliance Library System (ALS) and Virtual Ability, Inc. (VAI). Funded by a grant from the National Library of Medicine, the island provides residents a place to find fellowship, training and education on topics related to physical disability, cognitive impairments or other chronic health concerns.
While providing an excellent resource for consumer health information, the island also offers virtual world training using the andragogical principles of adult learning. It is interesting to note how the island was designed visually and experientially to offer the best benefit to SL users with disabilities. For examples, signs are printed on an egg-colored textured background to improve readability, warnings and alerts are prominently highlighted, and training is offered in small sets to decrease fatigue. There is also a library of resources for those who require adaptive services:
Volunteer trainers can help newcomers using a wide variety of technologies, from screen readers to onscreen keyboards to voice recognition software. Training is provided for people to become specialized Second Life mentors, with help from Linden Lab. The whole island takes into account the abilities and disabilities of the target group. For instance, did you realize that people using onscreen keyboards have difficulties getting out of mouselook without turning off their whole computer? Well, here they get warned (and) instructed about this.
The grand opening happens today (16 August 2008) at 1:00pm SL time.
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