“The goal of the Faire is to bring together educators, academics, and students to explore the support mechanisms available to Residents who use Second Life to enhance real world educational efforts.The Faire opens this Sunday, January 25th at the region Supporte, and will last through Friday, January 30th. A full list of individuals and groups with displays and/or presentations at the Education Support Faire can be found ."I was invited along to the fair presentation by Gazanfer Jehangir who has also provided me with the transcript and some pictures:I'm Eme Capalini, a volunteer with Virtual Ability, Inc. Thank you to Linden Labs and Pathfinder for inviting me today.This morning I'm going to tell you a little bit about our group, then describe our adaptive orientation facilities.During our specialized intake process, we provide new SL residents customized orientation and training at Virtual Ability Island.I've been working with the Virtual Ability group in SL for a year and a half.At first I was part of the training group, helping a woman who is a quadriplegic learn how to shop.For the last year plus, I've been the Task Group Leader for the design and build effort that resulted in Virtual Ability Island.There, new residents can learn SL fundamentals in an accessibility-friendly environment, and existing residents can receive ongoing training and information about health-related issues and support groups.Research for basic curriculum took place over the past year and a half, as we conducted individual one-on-one training sessions with friends and referrals to our group.We identified a list of basic skills we felt everyone needed to know in order to function in SL.This curriculum was refined through many iterations into a sequence jokingly called the ADLs (activities of daily living) of SL.About a year ago, an opportunity arose that allowed us to expand from the individual training we had been limited to.We partnered with the Alliance Library System of Illinois on a project funded in large part by a grant from the National Library of Medicine.This partnership was the beginning for us to design the facilities on a new island, dedicated to bringing in and providing initial training for newcomers to SL who have chronic health conditions or disabilities.My Task Group spent many months studying orientation centers in Second Life with a goal of creating the best of the best, not only for people with disabilities but for anyone wanting to learn how to get around.Universal Design is a philosophy of the design of manmade spaces that seeks solutions that support everyone, those with disabilities and those without.On our course, we used Universal Design principles in several ways. If you look at the pathways you will see they are flat where possible, ramped according to ADA specs where not.Through our web site (using "Reg API") and soon as a Community Gateway member, new residents arrive at the beginning of our orientation course the first time they log in to SL.Questions:Pathfinder Linden: have you had RL educators approach you about using your resources to help them with students in SL who are dealing with disabilities?Eme Capalini: Pathfinder, we do work with educators, and are partnered with Alliance Library SystemOronoque Westland: thanks for a wonderful presentation...does VAI offer assistance to educators who want to incorporate Best Practices re: accessibility in their SL builds?Eme Capalini: Yes, we would be happy to assist youGentle Heron: yes we do, and so does Accessible Builds (Polgara Paine)Eme Capalini: We also have information on our website for groups that need indepth assistanceMore info can also be found on the Wiki HERE
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