SECOND LIFE: Meet Max the virtual guide dog!

Filed under: Themes, Blind Visionaries, Campaign Watch

Virtual Helping Hands (VHH) is a coalition of four groups, united in their mission “to bring people who have disabilities into Second Life so everyone can enjoy what Second Life offers—entertainment, education, and employment. Everyone can explore and enjoy the same virtual worlds of the Immersive Internet”….with just a teensy weensy li’l bit of code tweaking.

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HISTORY

The first blind avatar in Second Life was “Jolie1 Magic,” the avatar of Jolie Mason, a real-life guide dog user and the first completely blind person in Second Life. Her journey shows how Max, the VHH Virtual Guidedog, allows people with visual and other impairments to use SL—opening SL to everyone and meeting the ADA Section 508 disability access requirements. In real life, Jolie Mason directs the Los Angeles Radio Reading Service (LARRS.org) that provides in-depth information for people who are blind or print-impaired. She also co-hosts the award-winning “Access Unlimited,” a radio show about disability issues, broadcast throughout California to about 150,000 listeners on KPFK 90.5 FM each Tuesday 3:00-4:00 p.m. PST, over the Internet at KPFK.org, and in Second Life.

Jolie first heard about Second Life while listening to Science Friday on NPR. She has a personal and professional interest in providing in-depth information to those with disabilities—and the Immersive Internet is the next great way to share in-depth information. She asked her twin sister, Louise Nicholson, to help her get into Second Life . . . Louise had joined SL to develop and teach federally-mandated training classes for business people. But Louise is visually impaired and found using SL difficult. She couldn’t make her living teaching national classes from SL, until she could find some way to move and to find people and places confidently. With her freebie virtual sled dog and a guidedog harness, Louise started wearing a “prop guidedog” to let Second Lifers know that “I need extra time with text and navigating.” Next, Louise helped Jolie enter SL as Jolie1 Magic on the opening day of the Virtual Ability Inc. Orientation Trail (8/18/08). But Jolie1 couldn’t interact with objects or hear the chat window with her basic Windows screen reader, so Jolie logged off with Jolie1 standing immobile at the VAI login point.

Later, Charles Mountain IM’ed Louise to join SecondAbility Mentors, a group Charles founded with Saxet Uralia. A gifted developer, Charles had scripted the SecondAbility Mentor call system, so mentors can assist people with disabilities at anytime. When he saw her guidedog, Charles asked Louise what its scripting did. She explained, “It’s a prop to let people know I need help finding people, places, and things.”

Charles laughed. “My radar script can tell you that. I’ll put it in the dog.”

Max the Virtual Guidedog was born.

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ABOUT MAX THE VIRTUAL GUIDE DOG

Max is a virtual guide dog in Second Life. He’s also “a real, assistive device so that we can all enjoy the Immersive Internet together.” The mission of the Virtual Guidedog project is to ensure that those who are unable to use standard interfaces have equal access to the virtual worlds of the Immersive Internet (for example, those who are visually impaired, totally blind, print impaired, or mobility impaired). With Max, “we are identifying what features of the regular Second Life™ client need customizing so that these options can be available to people with various disabilities so that everyone can enjoy virtual worlds together.”

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MAX’S SECOND LIFE “WISHLIST”

• That Second Life, as a significant source of education, employment, engagement, and entertainment, could meet Section 508 Accessibility Standards
• The ability to click on objects
• A speech-to-text option
• To be able to build
• To be able to process all text—inventory items, blue menu buttons, and so on
• To have all main screen functions accessible by keyboard shortcuts

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Click here to see ALL Second Life keyboard shortcuts

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THE STONE-SOUP ANALOGY

According to virtualguidedog.com, “We are at the ‘Stone Soup’ stage of our project. In the story of Stone Soup, the traveler builds a campfire in the marketplace and puts on a big pot of water to boil. He has nothing to eat—so he puts stones in the pot to stir the curiosity of the villagers. One by one, the townspeople come out of their houses and add vegetables, seasonings, and meat until there is a delicious soup for all to share… We’ve got the water boiling—what can you add to the pot? We welcome what you’ve got to share!

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Second Life, the web’s largest user-created, 3D virtual world community

(& membership is FREE!)

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(*This post collated from info found here)

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