Designing Worlds visits Virtual Ability – now on the web!

Virtual Ability Island, photographed by Wildstar Beaumont

The latest episode of Designing Worlds – a visit to the a visit to Virtual Ability estate, a nonprofit that has created online community of support for people with physical, mental, sensory, developmental, and emotional disabilities and their families, friends, and caregivers – is now on the web!

And a full transcript of the programme is available here.

We hear from Gentle Heron, one of the three founders of Virtual Ability, how the Iasland – and the nonprofit – came to be founded, and something of the design principles that underlie the islands, making them accessible to many kinds of disabilities. And we’ll be learning how they support new residents coming in to Second Life too.

We take a look at Health Island and explore the reading rooms, libraries and displays of various kinds – and above all the Path of Support that offers links the the myriad organisations that have a Second Life presence for a wide range of conditions.

Health Info Island, photographed by Wildstar Beaumont

Then we visit some of the residential islands that form a part of Virtual Ability, and meet some of the residents there who talk about their experiences, together with Stepinwolf Darkstone, the Cape Heron Apartments Manager.

Finally, accompanied by Gentle Heron and Suellen Heartsong, we visit a fascinating – and very informative – research project that has been developed on Virtual Health Adventures with Virtual Ability supporting a research project on diabetic foot health – a really important issue for the growing number of people with diabetes.