The Amputee Coalition National Conference took place between July 22nd – 25th in Tuscon Arizona and one of the presentations involved a discussion about support and education in Second Life, with Dr. Sandra Winkler of Nova Southeastern University in Florida leading the presentation :
Virtual Support and Education Through Second Life – Sandra Winkler, PhD, OTR/L; Jim Mercier;Eme Capalini
Tucson C
This presentation will:
(1) Demonstrate a virtual world environment that provides amputees with evidence based knowledge about amputation and prosthetics – including a virtual prosthetics museum.
(2) Launch the collaboration of this project with the Amputee Coalition. Participants will experience how daily activities, such as exercising and conditioning, can be learned as an avatar in a virtual world. Amputee presenters will discuss the potential of this virtual world for distant – even international – peer visitation, education, and socialization and support activities.
Unfortunately I do not have a full transcript of the presentation.
However a report on Healio by Shawn M Carter does have some quotes from Dr. Sandra Winkler :
This tool could strengthen awareness and self-management of a user’s specific disability, Sandra Winkler, PhD, OTR/L, lead researcher of the project, said during a presentation.
“The trend in health care is managing your own care, rather than relying on a provider to tell you what to do,” she said. “Managing your own care provides access to knowledge … then you can start problem-solving what is best for you.”
Recreational activities are easiest to understand when engaging in the activity, according to Winkler, who believes this program provides that opportunity.
Dr. Sandra Winkler’s work can be further investigated on the Virtual Health Adventures website, or, if you prefer, you can visit Virtual Health Adventures in Second Life.
Inworld you will find information boards, which include a presentation in a seated area outside the main building. There we can see information such as 20% of Second Life residents identifying as having a disability, which is higher than the 15% who identify as having a disability in the real world.
We also see what some of the challenges are for disabilities in a virtual world, the most glaring being if people have trouble using a mouse and keyboard. Moving forward, as more devices develop that allow people to control avatars in virtual worlds, some of these barriers will be broken down.
However it’s also clear that virtual worlds already allow opportunities for amputees to engage in activities in a virtual world that would be a struggle outside the virtual world.
Virtual Health Adventures work with other organisations in the virtual world, including Virtual Ability.
Dr. Sandra Winkler’s name may sound familiar to some readers, that might well be because Dr. Winkler’s research was featured on episode 22 of The Drax Files : World Makers. I’ll embed that here too, it’s around five minutes long and well worth a viewing.
SLURL To Virtual Health Adventures : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Health%20Adventures%20I/76/161/31
To find out about a few more success stories regarding education in Second Life visit the official wiki, which has more information.