[games_access] Fwd: interesting discussion about making SecondLife accessible to the blind

[AudioGames.net]

Thanks for this! I've already posted my 2eurocents. Maybe we do need to keep 
in mind that many consider Second Life to be "a simulation instead of a 
game" (to quote Margaret Robertson of Edge Magazine). While this may seem 
like a futile detail at the moment (games vs. simulation discussion), it can 
make all the difference in the world - legally.

Greets,

Richard


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "d. michelle hinn" <hinn at uiuc.edu>
To: <games_access at igda.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 1:09 AM
Subject: [games_access] Fwd: interesting discussion about making SecondLife 
accessible to the blind


> Forwarding this for Eelke...interesting timing, as I'm about to guest
> blog about accessibility of MMOGs on Terra Nova.
>
> Hey the American Blind Federation sued AOL...this was bound to happen
> to online games eventually, especially since they are being used in
> classrooms.
>
> Michelle
>
>>ate: Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:28:11 -0800
>>From: "Eelke Folmer" <eelke.folmer at gmail.com>
>>To: "d. michelle hinn" <hinn at uiuc.edu>,
>>         "Richard Tol van" <r.van.tol at bartimeus.nl>
>>Subject: Fwd: interesting discussion about making SecondLife
>>accessible to the blind
>>
>>Hey I sent this one yesterday to the games access list but it wasn't
>>featured in today's
>>mail.
>>
>>cheers Eelke
>>
>>
>>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>From: Eelke Folmer <eelke.folmer at gmail.com>
>>Date: Jan 9, 2007 3:46 PM
>>Subject: interesting discussion about making SecondLife accessible
>>to the blind
>>To: games_access at igda.org
>>
>>
>>http://www.it-analysis.com/blogs/Abrahams_Accessibility/2006/11/second_life_class_action.html?mode=full&hilite=13287#CM13287
>>
>>People seem to have some radical opinions about the subject matter
>>(especially with regard to the class action suit):
>>
>>"Don't get me wrong; I'm all for supporting the rights of the
>>disabled, but this is beyond insane. What's next? Should they sue the
>>Anderson Window Company for not making windows that verbally describe
>>what's going on outside. I mean, really, those windows only work for
>>people who can see, right? That's discrimination, right"
>>
>>Interesting is the response from Joshua Linden (founder linden labs)
>>about how Lindenlabs is trying to do their best to follow the W3C
>>guidelines but rather decided to make the Second life viewer open
>>source so people can write their own viewers which support alternative
>>input and output mechanisms such as screen readers. However I believe
>>this will only work if accessibility features are supported on the
>>server side. E.g. how do you classify & describe an object in
>>Secondlife? (e.g. its the same problem with adding meta information to
>>images on the word wide web see http://www.espgame.org/)
>>
>>~ Eelke
>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>Eelke Folmer                            Assistant Professor
>>Department of Computer Science & Engineering/171
>>University of Nevada               Reno, Nevada 89557
>>Game Quality         usability|accessibility.eelke.com
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>>--
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>Eelke Folmer                            Assistant Professor
>>Department of Computer Science & Engineering/171
>>University of Nevada               Reno, Nevada 89557
>>Game Quality         usability|accessibility.eelke.com
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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