The Most Common Questions Asked by Blind People About Second Life Access: Answered By CeleneHighwater

Hi all! By now you probably know I am the ballgown-loving, fin-flipping mermaid who lives at Virtual Ability. And yes, I know ballgowns aren't exactly compatible with a tailfin, but hey, it's SL! I can transform easily.

What some of you might not know is that I am a blind Second Life user. I use a viewer called Radegast. You can find it here:

http://radegast.life

I have decided to write this post to answer some frequently asked questions about life in Second Life and Radegast viewer use.

Q - I have never heard of Radegast. What is it?

A - Radegast is a text-based viewer for use in virtual worlds. It does have limited 3D view capabilities but these were never fully developed. What has been developed, however, is its accessibility and ease-of-use for those of us who are blind.

Q - Do I need money in Second Life?

A - No. No money is needed in the virtual world. However, you can transfer real life currency into Linden dollars if you so choose. And once acclimated with Radegast and in world life, you can work a job if you want or do something for fun to earn a little extra like trivia, fishing, or themed contests.

Q - What is possible in Second Life?

A - Second Life is a world with endless possibilities. If you can dream it, you can probably do it here. The environment is surprisingly accessible for those who use a screen reader and, as awareness grows among other residents and creators, so does the level of access. Virtually the only two things we can not do right now are drive and build. But, no one drives much in SL unless for sport. Teleportation is definitely the way to go here!

Q - What kinds of places can I explore?

A - There are clubs, non-profit organizations, roleplaying sims, universities and colleges offering credit courses, groups with dedicated sims, dance halls, concert venues, parks, cities, museums and even some real world replicas of well-known places (e.g., Yosemite National Park, the Pyramids of Egypt, Machu Pichu)!

Q - How do I get started?

A - If you want to join Second Life, you will want to register on Virtual Ability's website for a Second Life account. The reason for this is because when you log in with Radegast, you will be on Virtual Ability's orientation island where, if you've scheduled an appointment with us, we can be waiting to help you gain your inworld feet.

It is not necessary for you to schedule an appointment with us, but we do encourage it, just because Second Life is such a huge place and it can be overwhelming at first. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to get started.

After you register at virtualability.org, visit

http://radegast.life

and download the latest version of Radegast. Note that there is a how-to tutorial for Radegast on the site. We strongly encourage you to reference that often as you learn.

Q - Why do I have to make an appointment? Shouldn't there be someone around whenever I log online?

A - Second Life is a huge place with things going on all the time. It is a 24-7 world that never sleeps. We could be taking part in an event elsewhere, relaxing at our favorite sim, or we could be in real life with our families. We are all volunteers and can not monitor the entry point for Virtual Ability at all times. It is not possible.

Q - I know what is possible for sighted users, but what about blind people?

A - While we can not build currently in the virtual world, we can do most everything else. We can shop, manage our own wardrobe, interact at events, dance, etc. My favorite activity is fishing; I am hopelessly addicted to it, but that is just my preference. Everyone will find their own place in this world. It's the way Second Life is designed. And because Second Life is an ever-evolving platform and Radegast an open source viewer, anything is possible!


I hope these questions and answers have helped you somewhat as you decide whether or not to join us in the world of Second Life. If you do decide to come in, we will be happy to help you as much as we can. We were all new residents once and we remember what it is like!

Autism in Context: Optimizing Equity for Students on the Spectrum

Autism in Context: 

Optimizing Equity for Students on the Spectrum

webinar put on by the 

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

Date:  Tuesday, June 8, 2021

Time:  11 a.m. SLT

Duration:  1 hour

Register here:  https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=reg20.jsp&partnerref=ASCDweb&eventid=3146996&sessionid=1&key=2B7392303C0CC74354623A08BE014EC3&regTag=&V2=false&sourcepage=register

Educators and parents or guardians of students on the autism spectrum are often at odds, bringing to the table vastly different perceptions and expectations. And yet, because these students depend heavily on consistency and continuity across contexts, effective collaboration with parents and guardians is a crucial component of their education. How do educators bridge this gap?

Barbara Boroson has sat on both sides of the table for these challenging conversations — as both an autism educator and a parent of a child on the spectrum — and brings a multifaceted perspective to this touchy topic. In this webinar, teachers and education leaders will collect practical information and strategies for maintaining an equitable learning environment that embraces these quirky learners — and their parents and guardians, too.

Speaker Barbara Boroson

Barbara Boroson is the author of the new ASCD publication "Decoding Autism and Leading the Way to Successful Inclusion" and "Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Inclusive Classroom: How to Reach and Teach Students with ASD" (Scholastic, 2016) and has worked in the field of autism education for more than 25 years in clinical, administrative, and advisory capacities.

She provides professional development and consultative services nationwide to school districts and parents facilitating successful inclusion, and speaks frequently at conferences, colleges and graduate schools.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month!

May is Mental Health Awareness Month:  How to Get Mental Health Help

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Everyone has mental health! This designation for May was begun in 1949 by Mental Health America. Their theme this year is “Tools 2 Thrive.” Mental Health America provides resources to improve personal mental health and increase resiliency.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) promotes the theme “You Are Not Alone.” NAMI states that the purpose of this theme is to “focus on the healing value of connecting in safe ways, prioritizing mental health and acknowledging that it’s okay to not be okay.”

In Canada, Mental Health Week 2021 Is May 3-9. This year’s theme is “Name it, don’t numb it.”

In the UK, Mental Health Awareness Week is designated May 10-16 in 2021. The 2021 theme is “Nature.” A strong connection to the natural world is good for anyone’s psychological and emotional health.

Did you know that one in five US adults and one in six US youth and teens will experience a mental illness in any given year? It is a sad statistic that less than half of them will receive any treatment. One in five homeless people in the US have a serious mental health condition. Over a third of incarcerated adults and nearly three-quarters of youth in the juvenile justice system have been diagnosed with a mental illness.

Anyone who is affected by mental illness, including family members, coworkers and friends of those directly affected, should receive appropriate support without stigma. With proper care, those struggling with mental illness can achieve a high quality of life and be happy and fulfilled. Nobody needs to feel alone.

Please check out the informative poster sets on Virtual Ability’s Healthinfo Island during May to learn more about mental illness and the resources available. You can teleport to any of the eight displays and exhibits using the SLURLs below. Click on the poster with the same name as the title of the poster set to receive a notecard of all the text of the posters plus descriptions of the images. If you click each poster, you will get a message with additional information and live links.

Mental Health Awareness Month: How to Get Mental Health Help
    SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/111/81/24

Minority Mental Health Equity
    SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/21/62/32

Borderline Personality Disorder
    SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/99/37/26

Dementia
    SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/51/27/28

Bipolar Disorder
    SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/25/24/30

Basic Facts About Depression
    SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/196/156/23

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
    SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/187/181/24

Music and Mental Health
    SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Healthinfo%20Island/172/154/22

 

Cookies Eat Dinosaur

The Caramel That Tried To Escape

By Orange Planer, Virtual Ability member

It was a quiet Sunday afternoon when my wife said, “I need chocolate!”  I like to think I’m a good husband, so I raise my bulk off the couch to make my top-secret chocolate cookies.  Re-reading the recipe is always a good thing, so after doing that I promptly forget everything, mix all the dry ingredients, crack the two eggs into a bowl, and wait for the butter to soften.

After an hour or so the butter is softened.  The recipe doesn’t make a lot of cookies, so out comes the smaller bowl and the beater with the rubber scrapers on the edge.  Time to cream the butter (beat a lot of air into it).  The butter goes into the bowl, I start the mixer on low and slowly speed it up.  Great, the butter has gone from soft yellow to white with the additional air.  The recipe says to add two cups of sugar (to beat a lot more air into it).

We have trouble:  the sugar was combined with all the other dry ingredients.  Now what?  Well, there's sugar in there SOMEwhere, hopefully it will help cream the butter…  I add the first of two cups of dry ingredients and put the mixer on low.  Uh oh.  I forgot cocoa powder is light and prone to fly all over the place.  Result:  happy, graceful cocoa powder clouds rise into the air.

In for a dime, in for a dollar.  I continue adding dry ingredients with the mixer on low.  So far, so good, the cocoa powder clouds are subsiding, but the butter is sticking to the beater shaft.  Increasing the mixer speed from 2 to 4 should take care of that.

We have more trouble:  I did not wait until the dry ingredients were incorporated.  Now unhappy, not-so-graceful, cocoa powder clouds color the air around me.  It’s in my mouth, it's coating the mixer, the rest of the kitchen, and it's all over me.

Well, that did not work, so after turning off the mixer and scraping the butter off the beater shaft, the dry ingredients get incorporated.  Now it is time to finish creaming the butter with the mixer at high speed.  That is also when I realize the bowl is not big enough. Dough is starting to spew all over me and the kitchen.

I turn off the mixer, clean up the mess, and get out the BIG bowl, 5.5 quarts.

And, on a hunch to keep the clouds under control, I change from the beater with the scrapers to the one without scrapers.  I also bring out the two-piece bowl cover that has a ramp where I can slide in dry ingredients.  Of course, the way this day is going, it does not fit.  It was made for a smaller bowl.

All right, I remove the half of the bowl cover without the ramp, hold the part with the ramp in place using one hand, and turn the mixer on low.  With my free hand I try to put the cap on the vanilla extract.  I knock the bottle over, spilling a teaspoon or so on the counter and all over the instructions.  After picking up the bottle with my free hand, I’m starting wonder whether I should just go to the store, but my pride is at stake.  These cookies won’t defeat me!

I am still holding the half bowl cover with one hand, so I grab a cloth and wipe up the vanilla with the other hand.  I think about putting the cloth in the sink, say “heck with it,” and throw the cloth onto the instructions, 'cause.

Time to start adding the eggs.  This is a little tricky because the recipe says to add one egg at a time.  The first egg goes in just fine, along with about half the egg white using the ramp on the cover.  I wait for the egg to mix in, pour the other egg down the ramp and into the bowl… and somehow the egg yolk misses the ramp, breaking on the counter.  I sigh in frustration.  Well, there's nothing on the counter but cocoa powder, so I scrape it up and put it in the bowl and let it finish mixing.  Now it's time to put in the dry ingredients.

Well, the rest of the dry ingredients.

Trying to keep the unhappy clouds from happening again, I leave the mixer on low and pour a cup of the mixture down the ramp.  Had I forgotten that there was egg white on that ramp?  Yes.  A whole bunch of the dry ingredients sticks on the ramp, but most of it gets in the bowl.  But because the mixer is moving, unfortunately, my attempt at reducing the unhappy clouds is an abject failure.

Now there are angry cocoa powder clouds that make me think of Mt. Kilauea and I can barely see anything.  No wonder they evacuate people from around active volcanoes.

Finally, the remaining cocoa powder and the rest of the dry ingredients get incorporated, but as before it is sticking to the shaft of the beater.  I speed up the mixer to 8 to spin it off with no luck.

Time to bring out the muscle.  Out comes the silicone spatula.  I am partway through mixing the dough when I realize that (a) my trigger finger is bad – the right ring finger is locked on the spatula – I cannot change grip; and (b) remember when I said I stopped using the beater with the scrapers?  Yeah, that would have been useful right now.  About a half cup of the dry mixture is at the bottom of the bowl, unmixed.

I pull the spatula from my hand and unwind my finger with the other hand.  Now I can change grip from “fist” style to how I hold a pen.  I slowly (because I forgot silicone spatulas are freakishly soft!) mix the rest of the dry ingredients in.  I ask my wife if she wants to taste the batter.  After observing the kitchen, the bowl, the implements of destruction, and me she just licks my arm.

"Tastes good!" she says, and heads back to the living room.

I sigh.

The dough is now cooling in the fridge.  Everything's been wiped down, washed, put in the dishwasher, or otherwise sanitized.

But it will not surprise me if my coffee tomorrow turns out to be mocha.

Top Secret Chocolate Cookies

Recipe from Food Network

Yield: 2 1/2 dozen cookies
Level: Easy

• 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs, unbeaten
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• White Sanding sugar, for garnish (optional)

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together with a hand mixer.
   
   
2. Add the eggs and vanilla extract to the creamed mixture and mix until combined.
   
   
3. In a medium bowl, mix the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, and salt.
   
   
4. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and continue mixing until incorporated.
   
   
5. Roll the dough into TWO logs that are about 2-inches high and 1-foot long. Wrap the dough logs in waxed paper and place in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
   
   
6. Preheat oven to 350°F.
   
   
7. Once the dough is thoroughly chilled, slice the logs into 1/2-inch thick rounds and dip all sides in sanding sugar. Place dough rounds on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes.
   
   
8. Cool cookies on a wire rack.