SL Access for the Visually Impaired

SL Accessibility Issues

Problem
I have been thinking about technological and sensory accessibility in Second Life. The user in this post is in a wheel chair, a motor disability that does not affect access.In an earlier blogpost, http://mocozone.blogspot.com/2007_10_14_archive.html, I included an article about a headgear that allowed people with neuron-muscular disabilities to direct avatar movement through though and transmission through the headgear . But in that post I also wondered aloud about how people with full visual impairment could participate in Second Life.

Potential Solution
An article entitled “IBM Project: Second Life Accessible of Blind People,” (Sierra, 2007), describes IBM’s efforts to make SL accessible through sound (“leaves rustling,” for example) and text-speech software integration. It is still in the R and D stage.

Bedard-Voorhees, A. (2007). Neuromobility. Mocozone Blog. Retrieved on November
13, 2007, from http://mocozone.blogspot.com/2007_10_14_archive.html

Sierra. (2007). IBM project: Second life accessible for blind people.
Techpin: Daily Tech News. 24 September 2007. Retrieved on November 13,
2007, from http://www.techpin.com/ibm-project-second-life-accessible-for- blind-people/#comment-1205.