Internet users with disabilities highlights the benefits of the use of Second Life

Internet users with disabilities highlights the benefits of the use of Second Life, a virtual interactive game created in 2003 by the American company Linden Lab, in which users can create their own character, interact with others and build up businesses, according to numerous testimonies collected in Australian magazine "Eureka Street." Niels Schuddeboom, a Dutch student with limited mobility who moves in a wheelchair, says that "in real life, because my wheelchair and my motor coordination problems, some people consider me as physically disabled and intellectually, but that does not happen in Second Life. " The Dutch university, which was forced to abandon his career as Information Sciences due to lack of flexibility of their university, has also been able to take pictures, short films and create their own media company in the game. David Wallace, an Australian tetrapléjico who works as coordinator of Information Technology at the Center for Resources and Information on Disability in South Australia in Adelaide, has an art exhibition in Second Life, created by the building at the University of Bradley Illinois (USA). Wallace, who had to create their own wheelchair for his virtual avatar (the character who represents him in the virtual environment), because in Second Life did not exist this technical assistance, said in his blog that "the users of the virtual environment are very inclusive. " Britain's Simon Stevens has cerebral palsy and his character also uses a wheelchair. Stevens has created a nightclub in Second Life. BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF DISABILITY Another user, Fez Rutherford, has developed software compatible with Second Life, with the goal that Internet users better understand the situations faced by persons with disabilities. One of its programs would have played the impressions that a blind person to use Second Life, as the virtual platform does not have an audio message or a touch system that enables Internet users with a disability is guided through it. Since its inception in 2003, millions of people around the world have registered to use this game online, and in the past two months 1,750,000 users accessed the same. Some companies use it as a means to carry out marketing campaigns alternatives; non-profit organizations such as Save the Children have made cuestaciones to raise funds, and there are even singers who have given concerts across Second Life.
Source: Discapnet