First They Got Sick, Then They Moved Into a Virtual Utopia Real-life Fran was a hiker and a dancer. But when Parkinson’s stole her mobility, she discovered a new home inside Second Life. Today, Second Life is mostly forgotten by the broader public. An estimated 800,000 users are active on a monthly basis, according to Second Life parent company Linden Lab. That’s tiny compared to the 1.86 billion users who are active on Facebook each month. Yet some communities have quietly continued to thrive in the virtual world. One of these is the disability community, a sundry group whose members include people who are blind or deaf, people with emotional handicaps such as autism and PTSD, and people with conditions that limit their mobility, such as Parkinson’s, cerebral palsy, and multiple sclerosis. There are no official tallies of their numbers, but Wagner James Au, who has written extensively about Second Life, estimates they may account for roughly 20 percent of users. Some active members estimate the number higher — at as much as 50 percent. Second Life’s largest community of disabled residents is clustered on Virtual Ability Island, which is actually an archipelago of five islands — two public and three “residential,” where people can rent or buy homes. It’s the creation of a woman named Alice Krueger. In 2007, Krueger joined Second Life with a few disabled friends she knew from online chat groups. Today VAI has a thousand members, and hosts a dozen or so events per week, including games, live piano concerts, dance parties and self-help workshops. The main island, Virtual Ability Island, includes a welcome center with mentors who teach newcomers how to operate and customize an avatar. Another island called Cape Able, for the deaf and hard of hearing, has a “deaf chat” coffee house, a carryover concept from offline—only here, visitors text rather than sign. The island’s art gallery features works… http://bit.ly/2l1YBs7
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