Disabled Find Sanctuary in Second Life
It was founded by members of an online dating website, of all things, who migrated into SL to form a safe and supportive place for the disabled-- some 125 Residents with real life afflictions like multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy, with one member whose limbs are too damaged to use the keyboard, and must painstakingly click out chat communications letter by letter with his trackball mouse. This is the story of The Heron Sanctuary, as written by member Widget Whiteberry, in real life a public policy think tank staffer who originally joined Second Life to research it as a social platform, and found much more. Her powerful article's featured on the equally thoughtful (and gorgeously illustrated) blog of metaverse developers Eureka Dejavu and Schmilsson Nilsson.
It could be made much easier for a blind person to get something out of SL, but the interface is absolutely hostile to them. I mention this in-world, and people think I'm joking. But SL does have users who range from severely vision impaired to blind. Linden, like RL, is a highly visual place, but there is more to it than images.
Posted by: Wyvern Wycliffe | Friday, February 01, 2008 at 02:32 PM