[nagdu] Virtual Guide Dog

Pickrell, Rebecca M (TASC) REBECCA.PICKRELL at tasc.com
Wed Mar 24 19:07:06 UTC 2010


What a cool idea. 
I used to game back as a teenager and with text games. 
I haven't done it in years and don't think that this is how I want to
spend my time mainly because now the games can take literally all your
time to participate fully. 
Still, this is a neat concept. 
Jewel, I'm glad you found a way to keep playing and hope you can get in
touch with your friends again.
You know, maybe until the text interface gets off the ground you can
have someone read the screen, maybe another second life person? You
could even do this via webcam. 

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Jewel S.
Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 10:18 PM
To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nagdu] Virtual Guide Dog

Hi all! I came across a most interesting thing today....a little
background first.

I used to play Second Life, before my injury that took my vision. I
loved the ability to build, program, and converse. I was a member of
many virtual groups, with both real-world interests (like military
wives) and virtual interests (like learning how to program items to do
this and that and everything). I absolutely loved Second Life.

However, in 2008 when I lost my vision, there was no alternative way
for blind people to play Second Life. So, when my vision went from
20/70 to 20/200 to 20/600, I said good-bye to all my friends on Second
Life. My virtual family (a few friends who considered me like a
sister/daughter) cried when I left, and while I knew some of them as
their real-life selves, since they were in another part of the world,
continuing contact was difficult (many of them were British).

I found a text SL program recently (<textsl.org/>) that is for blind
and VI players of Second Life. So, I looked into SL for the blind
more.

I came across an article about a player of SL, VI herself, who is
programming a virtual guide dog, named Max, who will help blind
players navigate Second Life. Currently, it just looks good (with its
harness on a lovely sled dog type dog) and allows the avatar to follow
another avatar who acts as a sorted of sighted guide. But they are
working on the programming. The website is
<http://www.virtualguidedog.com/>

What do you all think of this?

~Jewel

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