Thread Subject: Second Life
Note
This archival content is maintained by WebAIM and NCDAE on behalf of TEITAC and the U.S. Access Board . Additional details on the updates to section 508 and section 255 can be found at the Access Board web site.
From: Jim Tobias
Date: Tue, Jul 10 2007 5:15 AM
- Return to this mailing list's archives
- View all messages in this thread
- Next message in thread: Andrew Kirkpatrick: "Re: Second Life"
- Previous message in thread: None
- Messages sorted by: Author | Thread | Date
We had a discussion a while back about "immersive environments", the fancy
name for games like World of Warcraft and Second Life, where your online
character interacts with thousands of other online characters in a purely
online world. These are not just a flash in the pan: they have millions of
users, with hundreds of thousands online at one time. They have begun
providing alternate "venues" for conferences, music events, and college
classrooms. So although they began as entertainment applications, they are
moving beyond that into essential parts of an emerging information medium.
The issue raised was, how accessible are these games? They depend on
vision, mouse work, and even hearing in some pretty demanding ways. In
order to act in these virtual spaces you need to see who's around you,
right-click on objects to buy or use them, etc.
Well, there's good news and bad news.
The good news is that someone has created a text version of Second Life, so
you can read (or screen-read) instead of see all the people and things near
you:
http://metaversed.com/09-jul-2007/ajaxlife-second-life-your-web-browser
The bad news is that this version is written in AJAX, so there's no
guarantee it's as accessible as it might be.
***
Jim Tobias
Inclusive Technologies
+1.732.441.0831 v/tty
+1.908.907.2387 mobile
skype jimtobias
- Next message in Thread: Andrew Kirkpatrick: "Re: Second Life"
- Previous message in Thread: None
WebAIM is an initiative of:
