Monday, March 3, 2008

Disabilities and SL

One of the potential participants in our study is a paraplegic. As I was investigating how he could participate in SL and in our study, I found some interesting information. So far in this class I have only looked at the use of virtual enviroments as a method for bringing people who are not physically co-located together. If we look at virtual environments simply as a way to bring people who are far apart close together for a presentation or meeting, you can see how it would increase the opportunities and cost-effectiveness of such activities. Virtual environments provide a tool to allow people to virtually gather and share information, ideas and experiences.

Beyond that, virtual environments are providing new options for those who have physical disabilities. There are currently several groups who have started using Second Life to meet and support each other. Further research and development of virtual worlds may open up entirely new experiences for those who are not physically able to go and do in the real world:

http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,22835200-5014108,00.html
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2008/01/disabled-find-s.html
http://www.secondeffects.com/2008/02/they-walk.html
http://2ndisability.blogspot.com/
http://eurekadejavu.blogspot.com/2008/01/story-of-heron-sanctuary.html

I have asked the student to share with me his experiences in SL and I will report back here when he does. I am very interested to hear what he thinks.

Tawnya

5 comments:

Donna Z Davis, Ph.D. said...

I attended a fascinating discussion in SL last night of rl vs sl... one of the common themes of the discussion was that sl offers people not only a "place" to meet, but a way to meet that also erases preconceived "labels" we have in rl. As blogs have created "voice" for people who may never had "spoken up" before, sl gives everyone a seat at the table, if you will. Sometimes the greatest creativity comes from the youngest, the oldest, the richest, the poorest, male, female, etc... but because of any number of "labels" they may not be taken seriously. When I was younger, I would get seriously frustrated in the business world because so many "business leaders" who were often men, just saw me as a "cute young girl"... now that I'm aging, I feel like people may not take me seriously, because I'm "outdated"... none of that exists unless I want to reveal it in sl. And.. you can pick a topic or idea... any topic or idea... in sl and find someone else in there who's likely delighted to discuss it, explore it, build it, or collaborate and research it with you, perhaps without fear of judgements typically placed on them in rl.

Narasi said...

Interestingly the same principles may be applied to SL. I have modified my appearence to be not so cool if some of you have noticed and I have wandered off into several lands and when I try to make conversation very few had responded and some who did spoke very briefly. I am yet to get experiement on how it would be if I were the macho dude :-)
Will keep you'll posted. I plan to mess around with this for the next fewa days.

Donna Z Davis, Ph.D. said...

I too have been doing that, Narasi. I actually had two avatars... one that you see in class, and another who is... shall we say... a little more risque. She got hit on so much, I deleted her. Too much trouble (and no desire, much less time, to explore that path. And, I just don't think my husband would understand that it was really just research...). I know others in class who have been doing the same with equally interesting results!

Terapyn said...

The heart of our project is that personality of the human creator and personality of the avatar is different. I believe that the personality we present has a great deal to do with the way we are treated. A Masked individual is not able to preform as the persona of the mask if the audience doesn't buy into it. In the same turn I beleive that we react to the personality that is encouraged upon us. Therefore, a risque Avatar will probably recieved flirting, a "dorky" avatar will have less interaction. I beleive that we see signs of this in schools where children are told they are "bad" and therefore behave badly. Why should it be so different in SL? The biggest difference is that we have absolute control over the appearence we choose. I'm stuck around 5'5'' of height, I can be much taller in SL. I can have much logner hair, without the need to grow it, I can have a hot body with out the diet and excersize.

We do this in RL as well with our clothing. We go to work dressed a certain way, to job interviews, to church, to class, to the club/bar. We dress the part we want to portray. In SL, it's simply easier.

Tiwei Lin said...

I expect your further information too. I think SL is a proper place to simplify the world so that those have disabilities can more easily to join SL. If someone is interested in such research in SL, there are some Barrier Free Environment webpages on line. But rather than webpages, I think SL can provide a more varied and interactive environment.