Name of Project: INTERACTIVE ACCESSIBLE HOME

1. Summarize your idea and vision for this project. How does it utilize the unique features of a virtual world?

Imagine for a moment, suddenly being unable to hear the knock at your front door, or stand and walk to the kitchen in the middle of the night, reach the faucet on your sink to wash your hands, reach and open a window to let in the fresh air. Imagine yourself confined to a wheelchair trying to navigate the doorways in your home, the threshold in your shower, or perform simple every day tasks such as chopping vegetables on a counter that is too high for you to reach.

In the United States alone, there are an estimated 54 million people with some form of disability and 48% of this group is classified as severely disabled. An estimated 1.8 million people in the United States use a wheelchair, and 5.2 million people have used a cane, crutches, or a walker for longer than 6 months. The number of people with some form of disability has been steadily and dramatically increasing for the past 20 years and as America grays, it is expected to continue to rise.

For people with mobility impairments, the simplest daily living tasks become a challenge at best and impossible at worst.

Homes can be designed or remodeled to accommodate the needs of persons with mobility impairments, but those needs can vary significantly from person to person and the expense of remodeling a home to provide accessibility can be daunting.  Persons with mobility impairments face still more challenges, when considering such modifications to their homes. As a person without disability, I can easily go to the local home improvement store, view kitchen counter configurations, walk into a shower stall and see how it feels, try out the latest appliances. However, for a person with mobility impairment, transportation alone may be physically, emotionally, and financially challenging or even impossible.

Our project would construct an interactive home, in the Virtual World of Second Life, that would allow a person with a mobility impairment to navigate through it using a wheelchair or walker. Or, for example, in an avatar that is less than average height, without limbs, to physically try out different construction elements such as; variable counter top heights, window designs, door and threshold widths and heights. They could manipulate various design configurations, elements, furnishings, and appliances to learn what suits their unique needs, before making expensive decisions about such things in the physical world.

We believe the virtual environment is perfect for a number of reasons:

•    Providing a tool such as an interactive model environment in the physical world would be cost prohibitive, yet entirely possible in virtual space.

•    If such a tool could be provided in the physical world, making it accessible to the 7 million people in the United States alone who are mobility impaired and might use it would be impossible, but in the virtual world, it could be accessed by anyone around the globe with computer access.

•    We have learned that in this virtual space a physical phenomenon occurs…. This environment is immersive and as we interact with the virtual environment and with others in it, we experience real world physical and emotional reactions to it; thus, as the participant navigates the home and interacts with it his sense of the space both physically and emotionally will be very real.

•    Anonymity in the virtual world will allow participants to visit the home, experience, interact with it, without the emotional stresses, and discomfort that they might, in the physical world with regard to their disability.

•     The virtual environment provides a cost effective, environmentally responsible, financially, physically and emotionally compelling (not challenging) means for allowing persons with mobility impairment to explore ways to make daily living with a disability better.

2. Who is your intended audience and who will participate directly?

Our primary audience is the person with a disability who will use this as a tool; however, the potential for collaboration here is tremendous.  A daughter in St. Louis might, via computer, participate with an aging mother in Canada as they explore the possibilities of adapting her home to meet the needs of her disability. A caretaker, builder, or architect might meet in Second Life with the disabled person to explore and talk about possibilities together. A classroom of nursing students or future social workers might use it as a learning tool to experience the challenges people living with mobility impairments face daily.

3. What is the scope of your endeavor and what would you most like to accomplish?

The immediate short-term scope of this project is to provide a tool that persons with mobility impairment can easily and cost effectively access to explore ways in which they can improve accessibility in their homes and thus the quality of their daily lives. However, the long-term scope of this project has an even greater potential. The project has the potential to become a self-sustained resource center where people with disabilities could easily access information and publications on living with a disability, remodeling a home to accommodate their disability, products and services that are available to assist them. Corporate sponsors and equipment manufactures will be sought to sustain the project past the grant period and allow it to grow as a resource center.

4. What *public good* benefits do you see created through your proposed endeavor?

•    The project will provide a tool for those with mobility impairments allowing them to easily and economically explore the possibilities of making their physical environments more accessible and thus improving the quality of their daily lives and maintaining independence.

•     Project organizer Kathee Gibbs says: “I see someone going through the virtual house and making adjustments to the house to fit their individual needs; then, looking at their own house with new eyes which see possibilities instead of barriers. I see this person talking with whoever is going to remodel their home with increased confidence. Even better, I see them both going through the house, and together making adjustments. Talking over possibilities and pricing with priorities in mind. I see this as a truly collaborative use of the resource.”

•    Non disabled individuals will have the opportunity to experience the challenges people with disabilities experience and thus gain understanding for this growing segment of the population.

•    Builders, architects, and service providers to those with disabilities will be given an opportunity to collaborate with one another and with the people; they serve, disseminate information to a global audience, and explore the possibilities of virtual space for further projects of this nature and more.

5. At the end of this challenge, what "real world" impact will you measure as your basis for success?

The real world impact of the project will be measured in the number of people whose lives were positively affected by their participation in it, the quantity of information disseminated, and number of corporate sponsors who are compelled to collaborate with us to continue to sustain the project past the grant period.

•    Participants visiting the home will be enumerated
•    Surveys will be available so that participants can comment on their experience and make suggestions that can be used to help the project grow and become increasingly effective.
•    The quantity of information disseminated will be measured.
•    Corporate sponsors will be documented and acknowledged.




6. Do you, or your team, have a solid track record and positive success stories in Second Life or other virtual spaces?

Yes. Please find enclosed biographies on the team members:


Pecos Kid-kathee Gibbs-Lucinda Bergbalm

Project Leader – Kathee Gibbs:

kathee Gibbs‘s, Project leader, Second Life avatar, has spent her brief Second Life, birthday Sep. 1st, 2007, just trying to get her hat on straight and learning, once again a new computer program.

In Real Life kathee Gibbs has had a computer since the “286’ model. Accessed the internet as soon as she did not have to pay long distance costs. Taught computer classes to people with disabilities, both mental and physical, for two years.

For three years had a consulting business that did evaluations for business’s and Government entities on their, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Compliance.

Below is a list of knowledgeable Second Life avatars that have agreed to work with me. They have vast experience and a solid record of accomplishment in Second Life.

Lucinda Bergbahn, Consultant:

Lucinda Bergbahn has been a resident of Second Life since November 2006.

In First Life, Lucinda Bergbahn's background is in Non Profit / Volunteer Management and Fund Development. She is a member of the executive team of registered Second Life Full Service Developers, Depo Consulting, serving as a consultant to Non-Profit clients and organizing events on the consultancy's 15-sim business park.

Some of Lucinda Bergbalm’s projects include:

The Depo Developers Expo- a content developer’s trades show featuring 22 sim & content developers, with presentations and workshops by some of Second Life's most well known developers including Shukran Fahid & Ham Rambler. SL residents as well as prospective First Life clients exploring the potentials of the Virtual Environments for businesses attended the show.
First Life gallery owner and art critic Haydn Shaughnessy, designed, and built by Real Life architect and director of Depo Consulting Bennet Dynamo. The inaugural show in the Ten Cubed Gallery featured five real life artists and was attended by art enthusiasts from around the globe. A Real Life catalog was produced allowing buyers to purchase Real World copies as well as limited edition virtual world copies of the works, which were showcased.

Blues for Autism- This 12 hour’s concert featured Dj's and live performers from Europe, the USA, and Canada and was visited by over 200 unique avatars and streamed on the internet as well as into several venues around the grid. $3500.00 USD was raised for the Autism Association of America.

Since January of 2007, she has owned and operated SLLBO a multifaceted venture designed to help bring land sellers and land buyers together consisting of an in world gallery of land for sale, website with parcel listings and photos, in world kiosks that allow residents to register and list properties on the web, and a seekers group that residents can use to advertise land for sale.

In June 2007, she opened Freebirds, a small freebie store offering free clothing hair and skins to new Second Life residents.

Since August 2007, she has operated Dreamcatchers, a blues/classic rock club now known as the Dreamcatchers Distillery, which is located in a showcase, build of a prohibition era rum distillery, created by the talented Gospel Voom, designer, builder of the China Cafe on Information Island. The Dreamcatchers Distillery feature live DJ’s and performers and provides space for new talent who are building their fan base in Second Life to perform.

Lucinda is also a content creator with experience creating commercial buildings, furniture, and decorative items and has several original products for sale at her in world store and on Slexchange and she is a member of the Second Life Business Bureau.


Virtual Ability, Inc. (VAI) - Gentle Heron & Pecos Kid:

Yes. Our team includes Virtual Ability, Inc. (VAI) (virtualability.org) which has developed a solid track record in Second Life since its inception a year ago.  VAI, and its project "The Heron Sanctuary" have successfully conducted the intake and training of numerous individuals with RL disabilities into SL - including conducting an individualized skills assessment, referring clients for help with assistive hardware and software as appropriate, and providing customized training and orientation.  Once they are in SL, VAI members integrate into the virtual society, while VAI provides an ongoing community of support.  The community offers members information, encouragement, training, companionship, referrals to other online resources and groups, ways to contribute back to the community, and ways to have fun.

Among VAI's success stories are the following:

Dusty's story:  

Dusty is the avatar of an incomplete C4-C5 quadriplegic woman from Texas. Due to a spinal cord injury in her neck, she is totally dependent upon other people to help her in all daily activities. She has a full-time staff of caregivers, 24/7, which allows her to live independently and maintain her career, to a considerable extent. Dusty uses Dragon Naturally Speaking software to access her computer. This voice recognition software allows her to speak, and then type’s text or moves the cursor about on screen based on voice commands.

Dusty came into Second Life about in the fall of 2007. After an initial few days of growing frustration, a friend referred her to VAI/The Heron Sanctuary.  There, she was evaluated for her use of assistive technology, and volunteers helped her learn the basic skills for successful SL functioning, took her shopping, and rapidly gave her a place to call "home" and friends to provide support.

Nick's story:

The avatar Namav Abramovic belongs to Nick Dupree, who describes himself as "a Medicaid reform activist, and, because of muscular dystrophy, I use a ventilator to breathe. I cannot use a keyboard, or lift my hands at all. I type with my thumb on a trackball mouse and click out text by hitting letters on onscreen keyboard software."

Nick read about people with disabilities using Second Life in the Washington Post, and logged in for the first time Oct. 20, 2007. Within weeks, he had joined VAI and rapidly became a strong supporter and advocate for the organization.  He co-founded "Open Gates", a VAI project that SL residents with any disability can turn to 24/7 for peer support.  From his bed at home, Nick is now also a successful and popular SL DJ.


Tentative Project Schedule:

Month 1:
The project will be housed on Virtual Ability Island.  This island is owned by Virtual Ability, Inc., and is currently being developed to house an orientation, training, and consumer health information center for people with disabilities and chronic illness. Locating the project on Virtual Ability Island will provide synergy with traffic that is already aware of or interested in disability-related issues.

Organize and hire scriptors & builders for the build team, complete design specifics and begin construction. The first Month's priorities will be construction of the Kitchen & Bathroom areas of the home.

Month 2:
Building will continue- collaborations with Second Life Residents and Real Life organizations serving persons with disabilities will be pursued. Sponsors for the continuation of the project past the grant period will be solicited and secured.

Month 3:

Building of the rest of the house will be completed-landscaping will be placed and a launch A Event that will be planned, publicized and orchestrated.