Thread Subject: Re: Second Life

From: Gregg Vanderheiden
Date: Thu, Aug 02 2007 2:05 PM

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Couple comments


1) It would seem we absolutely need to address this topic in the standards.
The government is beginning to use it and it is definitely E&IT so it is
subject to 508. I would seem that our regs will be applied to Second Life
whether we want them to or not. So we should be sure that we have sensible
way to do so.

2) Is Second Life actually a Web application as we have defined them or is
it just a software program that interacts with data over the Internet.
You use HTTP to download an install program. But you could also have one
sent to you by a buddy via the US mail if you wanted to. Once you install it
- doest it use HTTP to access content? Or does it use another protocol. If
not HTTP then it isn't web content as we have defined it.

3) I would assume this would follow the same rules as any software program
after that. Much of the visual imagery would be lost of course - but
since everything is computer generated or computer mediated, it would appear
that this world and its interactions could be much more accessible than the
real world - with the rather notable exception that nothing is tactile or
anything like real tactile. I would assume that one could be quite social
though in this environment and much more.


Gregg
-- ------------------------------
Gregg C Vanderheiden Ph.D.



> -----Original Message-----
> From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf
> Of Andrew Kirkpatrick
> Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2007 9:52 AM
> To: TEITAC Web/Software Subcommittee
> Subject: Re: [teitac-websoftware] Second Life
>
> Will,
>
> I don't think anyone is disputing the potential, and powerful
> applications of virtual environments, but in the context of
> 508 the big question for me is whether the technology is
> ready for specific mention and standards. It seems that we
> have a few options:
>
> A) come up with specific requirements for virtual and
> simulated 3D enviromnents (relates strongly to whether the
> access technologies are
> ready)
> B) rely on the standards that reference the need to expose
> programmatic information about UI objects to help address
> needs of blind users and other standards to support other
> user populations and be explicit that this type of
> application is not exempt
> C) punt the issue to "equivalent facilitation" for this
> version and hope that the industry matures by 2011 when we do
> this again.
>
> Maybe there's other options, but part of me wonders if this
> isn't going to be solved in a reasonably comprehensive way
> anytime soon and if we're being too optimistically aggressive
> on this topic.
>
> AWK
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> > [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On
> Behalf Of Will
> > Pearson
> > Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2007 2:43 AM
> > To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> > Subject: [teitac-websoftware] Second Life
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > Mike Paciello suggested that I contribute to the discussion
> on Second
> > Life.
> >
> > I suspect that quite a few of you already know me but for
> those of you
> > who don't I'll give a quick introduction. I'm Will
> Pearson, a blind
> > guy from the UK. I've got something of a track record in
> the field of
> > accessibility:
> > I spent a while working as a contractor for Freedom cientific on
> > advanced user interface research, I now act as a consultant for
> > another screen reader vendor, I've worked with several big name
> > software companies, such as Microsoft, on making some of their
> > products more accessible, and, more recently, I've started
> to work for
> > Mike at TPG; however, most of my time these days is spent
> looking into
> > collaboration, virtual reality, and haptics as part of my
> PhD in the
> > Computer Science department at the University of Bristol.
> > Whilst accessibility is not the area of my PhD, given my
> previous and
> > current work in accessibility and my research into
> collaboration and
> > virtual reality I do have an interest in making virtual
> environments
> > more accessible.
> >
> > At the moment virtual environments do not exclude everyone
> who has a
> > disability. If we take Second Life as an example then there are a
> > number of videos on websites such as YouTube that contain
> interviews
> > with disabled users of Second Life, and particularly people
> who have
> > mobility problems.
> > The reason why Second Life and other virtual environment
> systems seem
> > to be relatively popular amongst disabled users who can use
> them seems
> > to be that they can perform activities in virtual
> environment systems
> > that they cannot perform in the real world; so, for some at least
> > virtual reality actually seems to be more accessible than the real
> > world. A second reason, although not exclusive to virtual
> > environments, seems to be that people who have a disability
> can meet
> > up with others who have a disability in a colocated virtual reality
> > system. Often, this is quite difficult to do in real life
> given the
> > relatively low numbers of people who have a disability and thus the
> > likely low density of people with a disability in a given
> geographic
> > region. Second Life actually contains clubs and other
> buildings, such
> > as Wheelies, that are run by people who have a disability
> to serve as
> > a focal point for disabled users of Second Life.
> >
> > The benefits that virtual reality can bring to groups who
> have other
> > types of disability is also quite significant.
> > Taking the blind as an example, as it's a group that I have
> the most
> > experience of, then several benefits come to mind.
> > Often people learn about objects in the world from looking
> at pictures
> > in books and watching pictures on TV. Pictures are very useful as
> > they avoid the ambiguity, lack of precision, memory
> limitations, and
> > cognitive workload that is often associated with natural language.
> > Blind people often touch physical objects to gain details of their
> > shape, spatial relationships to other objects, etc and this
> delivers
> > the same information as pictures do and also avoids the problems of
> > natural language. There are several problems with touching
> real world
> > objects: quite a lot are too big to touch them in their
> entirety and
> > quite a lot are located signficant distances away from the
> person who
> > wants to investigate them.
> > To get around these problems models of the objects are
> often used in
> > place of the real object; however, because models are
> physical objects
> > in their own right they are difficult to share, store,
> transport and
> > they can suffer damage. One emerging technology is
> haptics, which is
> > a technology that can allow someone to touch simulated objects, and
> > consumer orientated haptic devices are now starting to
> appear on the
> > market, such as the Novint Falcon. Combining haptics with virtual
> > reality would give a solution where any object could be
> modelled and
> > that model could be shared with anyone in the world.
> Objects that are
> > far away, such as the moon, could be modelled, objects that are too
> > small to touch, such as the double helix structure of DNA, could be
> > scaled up, and objects that are too big, such as the space shuttle,
> > could be scaled down. This could go a long way to improving the
> > education of blind people in certain subjects. One other
> possible use
> > is in mobility training. The information given by long canes and
> > guide dogs can be considered to be a set of forces. haptic devices
> > can simulate forces, and so virtual long canes and virtual
> guide dogs
> > can be simulated. This could allow people to explore environments
> > that they plan to visit before they visit them, whcih is likely to
> > improve their confidence when they visit that environment
> in the real
> > world. Whilst not all of the information found in the real
> world can
> > be delivered through haptics or virtual reality the amount of
> > information that can does give it some interesting applications.
> >
> > So, I think that people with disabilities can benefit from virtual
> > reality technology beyond the benefits that virtual reality
> generally
> > offers.
> > Therefore, the question is not whether people should be
> using virtual
> > reality but how do we best make it accessible to those who
> currently
> > cannot access it.
> >
> > Will
> >
> >

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