Comments on: Blind leading the blind http://www.vtoreality.com/2007/blind-leading-the-blind/322/ VTOR - Virtual TO Reality, featuring Second Life Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:46:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Caliandris Pendragon http://www.vtoreality.com/2007/blind-leading-the-blind/322/#comment-70 Caliandris Pendragon Wed, 10 Jan 2007 15:28:12 +0000 http://www.vtoreality.com/2007/blind-leading-the-blind/322/#comment-70 As sometimes happens with something like this, my thoughts crystallised while I wrote about the subject. By the time I posted on the original website at http://www.it-analysis.com/blogs/Abrahams_Accessibility/2006/11/second_life_class_action.html?mode=full&hilite=13310#CM13310 I had realised that it was this disempowerment issue that I found disturbing. It's their world as well as our world, if we choose to take hold of it. Your idea of an NPC is a good one - at the very least that could be like a bus that takes people from orientation once they have identified themselves as needing it, on a tour of places which had been mapped out. I've always found people in SL to be amazingly generous and helpful to others. It would surprised me very much if people didn't get together to provide ways around the challenges for the visually impaired resident or tourist. As sometimes happens with something like this, my thoughts crystallised while I wrote about the subject. By the time I posted on the original website at http://www.it-analysis.com/blogs/Abrahams_Accessibility/2006/11/second_life_class_action.html?mode=full&hilite=13310#CM13310
I had realised that it was this disempowerment issue that I found disturbing. It’s their world as well as our world, if we choose to take hold of it.

Your idea of an NPC is a good one - at the very least that could be like a bus that takes people from orientation once they have identified themselves as needing it, on a tour of places which had been mapped out.

I’ve always found people in SL to be amazingly generous and helpful to others. It would surprised me very much if people didn’t get together to provide ways around the challenges for the visually impaired resident or tourist.

]]> By: TD Goodliffe http://www.vtoreality.com/2007/blind-leading-the-blind/322/#comment-69 TD Goodliffe Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:39:50 +0000 http://www.vtoreality.com/2007/blind-leading-the-blind/322/#comment-69 Interesting piece, Caliandris. I'm curious, in Everquest you can type /follow CHARACTERNAME -- is there an equivalent of this function in Second Life? What this allows you to do is go on autopilot to follow somebody across the equivalent of a sim (they call them regions) without having to press any buttons. Quite useful when navigating through tricky areas. One frustration that even more experienced SL residents without any sight impairment have sometimes is getting around with boundaries in the sky on propreties. In this case visually impaired people could have an NPC character maybe that they could always be following. They could use voice or text commands to the NPC and could have the commands echoed back to them. Text-To-Speech could also be employed for messages across genearal chat areas and different pitch voices could be used for private messages versus standard chat and shouting. With all this said, I've seen some incredible things from people with disabilities (check out this teen who <a href="http://www.makeyougohmm.com/20061121/3967/" rel="nofollow">"sees" with his ears and nose</a>, and he can play video games too) and think that any sort of class action lawsuit would be unnecessary. Interesting piece, Caliandris. I’m curious, in Everquest you can type /follow CHARACTERNAME — is there an equivalent of this function in Second Life? What this allows you to do is go on autopilot to follow somebody across the equivalent of a sim (they call them regions) without having to press any buttons. Quite useful when navigating through tricky areas.

One frustration that even more experienced SL residents without any sight impairment have sometimes is getting around with boundaries in the sky on propreties.

In this case visually impaired people could have an NPC character maybe that they could always be following. They could use voice or text commands to the NPC and could have the commands echoed back to them. Text-To-Speech could also be employed for messages across genearal chat areas and different pitch voices could be used for private messages versus standard chat and shouting.

With all this said, I’ve seen some incredible things from people with disabilities (check out this teen who “sees” with his ears and nose, and he can play video games too) and think that any sort of class action lawsuit would be unnecessary.

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