What we do:
Virtual Ability, Inc. helps members of our community integrate into the virtual society, and provides an ongoing community of support. The community offers members information, encouragement, training, companionship, referrals to other online resources and groups, ways to contribute back to the community, and ways to have fun.
We have book clubs, birthday parties, and Halloween costume contests. We take virtual field trips to wonderful and amazing locations across the virtual world. We also have volunteers who love to go shopping, and enjoy helping folks with virtual makeovers. While almost anyone new to a virtual online world would enjoy a little early guidance, we are finding that this individualized attention is often critical for the success of those who have disabilities.
We also do a lot of dancing. We have taken folks to walk in the virtual woods, climb mountains, go virtual skydiving – all kinds of things that are profound and a pleasure to someone with physical or mental limitations. It’s an amazing experience helping someone who will never walk again in real life to jump on a virtual trampoline.
We all know that people with disabilities face many barriers in living in the “real” world. There are also barriers to entering into a virtual world. Some people have only one hand or even one finger they can control to type. Some use a stylus, or type with their toes. Some can’t type at all, and use voice recognition software to control their computer. Virtual Ability, Inc. helps people with these kind of challenges get into and become successful in virtual worlds like Second Life.
Virtual Ability, Inc. offers consulting and Transcription Services
When virtual world presentations are given in Voice, those in the audience who are deaf or hearing impaired, or whose native language is not that of the speaker, may not know what is being discussed. Similarly, when online presentations are given in text, those who are dyslexic or have low vision may have difficulty following the presentation.
Virtual Ability provides transcription services within Second Life and other virtual worlds to assist in both these directions. Voice-to-Text (V2T) transcription provides a typed meaning-for-meaning (not word-for-word) real-time text for the audience to follow. Many event organizers appreciate having a typed transcript of spoken presentations. Text-to-Voice (T2V) transcriptionists read aloud the text offered by the presenter.