by DrFran Babcock
This week I had the pleasure of
attending a presentation at Virtual Ability, and you can see it as well.
Details will be given at the end of this article.
Most Second Life residents either
know or have heard of Gentle Heron (pictured left), who runs Virtual Ability, a group of sims,
an organization, and a philosophy (http://www.virtualability.org
). As Gentle says: Virtual Ability is
committed to accessibility. I will have more to say about Gentle at a future
date, but I would like to tell you about the aforementioned presentation:
Ambrosia108 Azalee (pictured below) is an Masters
student in Educational Technology at Concordia University, in Montreal, Quebec,
Canada. In voice and text, she told the assembled audience in her interest in
the meaning of Second Life for individuals who have physicial disabilities. She
is conducting a qualitative research study, as her Master’s Thesis, in the lived
experience of Second Life.
For those of you who are wondering
what I am talking about a brief discussion of qualitative research might be
necessary. Most of us are used to research that generates statistics, like: The
percentage of women in Second Life who are actually men, or, What countries are
most active in Second Life? Questions such as these are best answered by
mathematics. However, to answer the question of what it’s like to be a person
with a disability in a virtual world, math just won’t do. Ambrosia108
understands that, and that is why she wants to interview people about their
experiences as an individual with a disability in Second Life. As Ambrosia108
says: “I think it's important to ask big questions and dig deeper to find out
the benefits and limitations of a technology, and the impact it might have on
social justice, inclusion, ability, education, and so much more. Yes, I've
always been a bit of a rebel. ;-).” She understands clearly the benefits of
essence over numbers when one is studying human beings.
Ambrosia108 explained how she started becoming interested in disability
in Second Life. When she joined in 2009, one of the first people she met was someone
who had been in SL for many years. They later revealed that they were a
quadriplegic, a fact Ambrosia108 would never have known if she had not been
told. “As I tried to imagine this person behind the computer screen, I began
to wonder how people with real physical disabilities experience having a
virtually able body, no sign of disability, and a whole virtual world to
explore?”
1.
How do people with physical disabilities
experience learning about themselves and others through interacting in virtual
worlds
2.
What do people with physical disabilities learn
about themselves and others through interacting in virtual worlds?
Ambrosia108 is asking participants
to be interviews three times over the course of one to two weeks. The
interviews will focus on broad topics of history and background and move to
questions about the meaning of Second Life for the interviewé. The interviews can be in text or voice,
according to the needs of the participants. If you are interested:
You are invited to participate and
take this opportunity to share and voice your personal experiences within
Second Life. If you are interested in
participating, please read through the consent form and provide the researcher
with your Second Life information in the following link: Consent form and information: http://fluidsurveys.com/ surveys/slresearch/ participant-recruitment/
If you have any questions or would like to contact the researcher, please
contact Ambrosia108 Azalee in-world, or by email at: sl.pheno.research@gmail.com
Finally, the point of this whole
endeavor, beyond earning a Master’s degree for Ambrosia108, would be to support
her real agenda, which is to demonstrate the usefulness of and necessity for
virtual worlds for individuals with disabilities. “Second Life is not a game!” she declared. I could not agree more.
The event will be repeated this
Saturday, February 2nd, at 8:00 am, SLT at the Sojourner Auditorium:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/ Virtual%20Ability/53/172/23
Don’t miss it, especially if you are
interested in participating.
DrFran Babcock
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