Yes, I am still a bit behind schedule but I
wanted to share that… “I don’t know a lot about how people with disabilities are
using virtual worlds but I would like to know.”
Although I still have much to learn about the
benefits of virtual worlds for people with disabilities, there is one thing that
I have learned as a Second Life (SL) community member. I know that one of the most active, hard-working, and productive residents
is Gentle Heron, president and one of the co-founders of Virtual Ability, Inc.
I
believe that it was in 2009 when I met Gentle Heron at a weekly meeting of Nonprofit Commons in Second Life (NPSL), a virtual community of practice for nonprofits. NPSL is managed by a community of
volunteers under the leadership of TechSoup Global. Although NPSL community
members are located worldwide, we meet and interact in real-time within a
computer-generated 3-D environment known as a virtual world. While working at
my computer in the east coast state of Maryland, it was in this “virtual world”
where I met and interacted with the leadership of Virtual Ability, Inc. based
in Colorado, USA. Technology is so amazing!
Over the years, Gentle Heron and other NPSL community
members have graciously shared helpful information and valuable time as I learned
about the diverse applications of 3-D virtual worlds. It has become quite
evident that virtual worlds serve as alternate platforms for networking, information-sharing,
training, and providing support regardless of physical location or physical
abilities.
In Second Life, Virtual Ability, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation
is known as the “leading organization dealing with the support of people with
real life disabilities”. Virtual Ability’s mission is to enable people with a
wide range of disabilities by providing a supporting environment for them to
enter and thrive in online virtual worlds. The Virtual Ability team has definitely
established a supporting environment for real life people within a virtual world
community.
During
a recent visit to Virtual Ability’s HealthInfo Island, I walked the Path of
Support which depicts the wide range of peer support groups in Second Life. The
Path of Support provides information about the different health/disability peer
support organizations and the various types of assistance available to disabled
persons in Second Life. According to Gentle Heron, Virtual Ability has identified
over 120 different peer support Second Life groups for various disabling conditions
and chronic illnesses. Some support groups are big like the ones operated by
American Cancer Society for survivors and for caregivers. Some groups are
affiliated with real life national organizations such as the Autism Society of
America and the AA weekly meeting groups. Others groups are small, mainly
friendship support groups around a topic of common interest, and exist only in Second
Life. A few support groups in other
languages than English have even identified.
As my learning continues, I applaud the entire
Virtual Ability team. From the beginning, the three co-founders… Sodapop Heron,
Superquiet Heron, and Gentle Heron focused on setting up a support community
for real life people with real life disabilities. As many of our virtual world colleagues,
the three visionaries never thought of themselves as “players in a game”. I
share the same opinion of many virtual world users… “Virtual worlds such as Second Life are Not games”.
