Week 14

Our grand opening for our Accessibility SIM when very well. We had people with disabilities attend and I was able to find out about some new products; also, that there are more browsers for SL than I realized. Alice Krueger's (Virtual Ability Island) assessment of our site was especially informative and I'm glad she took so much time to explain why and what she liked and thought we should change. Next week, Eelke Folmer, inventor of TextSL, the screen reader for SL, has agreed to do an assessment. It should be interesting as I couldn't get the hang of it when I tried (especially the navigation aspects), something like JAWS, the standard in screen readers.

Week 13

We finally finished up our SIM project on Accessibility & Distance Education. I'm glad we focused on the post-secondary aspect of the topic, as I hope our classmates will find some benefit to knowing more about the subject. I've been adding suggestions to the Department of Justice's update on Section 508 of the Rehab Act, and have included information about MUVE and education. As we get more people to go through our SIM and get feedback, we should be able to update the project. I'm now looking for spaces to relocate it after the class is finished and hope the College of Education will consider it. Also getting a group together to apply for grants to expand the project and set-up workshops for learning.

Week 12

Researching accessible features for Second Life (SL) has been eye opening and very encouraging. In the regular today-to-today part of my job, I have to deal with people who see this as more of a nuisance than any benefit to anyone. Having a whole new venue for people to use and be educated is exciting on many levels; it's also going to be a tough sell. People have a hard time "seeing" how anyone who has a sensory impairment, could enjoy SL they the way they do. Ironically, it's that way for the rest of their lives. Last Friday, I listened to a blind person describe all the obstacles she's had over her life (she was 55 years old), the biggest one was other people telling her what she could or could not do. This included her family and every employer she ever had. Hopefully, society will change its views.

Week 11

The design for the Final Group project is under way. The layout has a draft and we've begun to assign sims for everyone to create. The SL wiki has been very helpful in finding people working on various aspects of accessibility for SL, especially seeing impaired. This is without a doubt, the biggest hurdle to overcome with people's attitudes toward accessibility and Second Life immersion and the entire experience. Too bad we can't just ask a blind person what they think about it!

Week 10

This week's lecture by the Virtual Abilities Island people and see the other student's sims gave me an idea for our group project. The presentation needs to be utilizing the 3-D environment unique to SL. I'm going to propose having the learning stations separated by high walls and dark rooms, with the beginning ones narrow and expanding to larger, more accessible space as the learning process progresses. Sounds could be added with the music becoming lighter as it ends with a large open space surrounded with people.

Week Nine

Continued my research on accessibility and Second Life, I have found it to be more thorough than I had first thought. Good articles on blind users on Second Life Wiki and there seems to be an advocacy component which helps in justifying this medium to people in the disability field. I also found someone (group) attempting to build a Guide Gog for users, I need to look more into this type of assistive tech along with OpenSource browsers. The only thing bothering me is the apparent lack of current writing on the subject, 2008 seems to be a stopping point for much of the discussion on accessibility.

Week Eight

This week was the beginning of the group project and the topic of accessibility in Second Life. It's interesting to hear others' take on what this means. Being in the disabilities and accessibility field, I've become rather set in how I see it; more an audience expanding feature with benefits to many than a micro fix to accommodate a few. The question always seems to come up about how could anyone with sensory disabilities benefit from using a 3-D environment? Good question. Legally and ethically, if you're offering a course, everyone should be able to take it. The real question is how do you know they don't want to experience it? Blind and deaf people partake in, and want to experience, visually and audio based entertainment like anyone else, so why not something like Second Life?