WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: Second Life issues

for

From: Oscar DeLong
Date: Sep 17, 2008 4:30PM

I have worked with Second Life a little bit over the past year. There
is a Second Life Educators listserv that covers many topics dealing with
Second Life and I know they have asked accessibility questions to that
list in the past. I cannot locate the email series at this particular
time but I know there has been a series of inroads made to allow
students with disabilities to function in Second Life. I know there was
a discussion about using Dragon Naturally Speaking in Second Life and
someone offered up the following document to assist with that:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgqj4cbt_35g2p7vkc5

Beyond that I believe there is a group within Second Life that has put
together some things about assisting individuals with disabilities to
use Second Life. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Oscar

Oscar DeLong
Access Services/Reference Librarian
Ottenheimer Library
Pulaski Technical College
3000 West Scenic Drive
North Little Rock, AR 72118
(501) 812-2718
<EMAIL REMOVED>


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Jan Heck
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 4:45 PM
To: Alternate Media List; Knowbility Accessibility-SIG; WebAIM
Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] Second Life issues

Greetings, and please excuse cross-postings,



My college campus is wanting to roll out a Second Life "virtual campus"
this
summer. They are aware that whatever info is posted there must be
posted on
our regular Web site as well, so that critical info is accessible to
everyone. However, I have read and heard that Second Life is not very
accessible at all, and I'm concerned about offering its social
environment
(avatars, chat, etc.) that is only accessible to some, but not all,
students
(i.e., disabled students may not be able to participate because Second
Life
is not accessible to their assistive technology).



If that is correct (and please do correct me if I'm wrong), then how are
other campuses dealing with the Second Life accessibility issue? One of
the
management folks spearheading the project says that we are pretty much
forced to do this in order to remain competitive, so many colleges are
doing
it.



Comments?



--

Jan Heck

<EMAIL REMOVED>