Full Description of Sessions for Upcoming IDRAC Conference is Now Available!

Additional Information for Each Speaker for the IDRAC Conference is Available at the Following Link: http://tinyurl.com/IDRACSpeakers

The Schedule For The 2014 International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference

Announcing The Schedule For The 2014 International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference!

FRIDAY OCTOBER 3

Time (SLT)	Presenter (SL/RL)	Title
5:30-6:30 am	babar365 / Babar Shahzad Chaudary	To Be Announced
7:00-8:00 am	Eleonora Falcon / Catherine Easton	Access to the Internet and Human Rights
8:30-9:30 am	bentirran / David Sloan	From Checklist Accessibility to Accessible User Experiences
10:00-11:00 am	Edmondo Barbosa / Dr. Edmund LoPresti	Assistive Technology for Computer Access
11:30-12:30 pm	Edmondo Barbosa / Dr. Edmund LoPresti	Assistive Technology for Computer Access
1:00-2:00 pm	Mixer with Tunes by DJ Puterdoc Devin	Enjoy a break to network and socialize
2:30-3:30 pm	GreggV / Gregg Vanderheiden	AutoPersonalization in Real and Second Life
4:00-5:00 pm	LauraMDRC / Laura Hall	Fun for Everyone: Assistive Technology for Video Gaming
5:30-6:30 pm	Sunnywassen / Gunela Astbrink	To Be Announced

SATURDAY OCTOBER 4

Time (SLT)	Presenter (SL/RL)	Title
6:00-7:00 am	BrianKelly Ah / Brian Kelly	Web accessibility is not (primarily) about conformance with web accessibility standards
7:30-8:30 am	TBA / Timothy Creagan	To Be Announced
9:00-10:00 am	anthony79 / Anthony Giannoumis	A Revaluation of the Cultural Dimension of disability policy in the EU: the impact of digitization and web accessibility
10:30-11:30 am	blondieCART / Gayl Hardeman iSkye Silverweb Gentle Heron / Alice Krueger	Hear With Your Eyes - How It's Done
12:00-1:00 pm	3D Displays	In My Opinion... Displays created by members of the Virtual Ability community
1:30-2:30 pm	Joel Savard / Joel Foner	Wait, what was that? Using inclusion to create a huge win for everyone, not just those who 'need it'
3:00-4:00 pm	Tom Bukowski / Tom Boellstorff	Bytes and Pixels: The Social Impact of Digital Inclusion
4:30-5:30? pm	After Party with DJ Puterdoc Devin	Join us for a tuneful conclusion to a great conference thanks to our presenters, participants and volunteers.

We Hope To See You There!

SAVE THE DATE!

You're invited to the Oct. 3-4, 2014 International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference (IDRAC), sponsored by Virtual Ability®,Inc. This international conference will be held in Second Life®.

The theme for 2014 is "Technically, we're accessible... right?" Exploring True Inclusion in the Digital World.

Join colleagues, friends, and community members for presentations on web accessibility, advances in assistive technology, creating an accessible user experience, accessible gaming, emerging standards for technology, and more! Presenters from Spain, U.K., U.S., and Australia will join us at The Sojourner Auditorium on Virtual Ability Island within Second Life.

Why don’t you join us, too? 

Questions? Contact sister@virtualability.org or Sister Abeyante

Keep your eyes on Virtual Ability's blog for more information!

http://blog.virtualability.org/ 

A Deeper, Larger View

My virtual community has invaded our living room. Has yours?

Virtual Ability in Second Life® is a group. Virtual Ability, Inc. is also a nonprofit organization registered in Colorado, USA. Most vitally, though, the people that ARE Virtual Ability are a community, a virtual community that extends around the world, across time zones and cultures and languages.

There are many ways to define a community. Most definitions include things like social ties, shared common perspectives, and shared actions or interactions in a shared setting.  Sociologists include things like ethnicity and language, caste and social divisions. Historians include settlement history and conflict history. Economists throw in interconnected livelihood strategies, and anthropologists add cultural factors, values, and shared cultural beliefs.

Peter Block’s 2008 book “Community: The Structure of Belonging” takes a look at community, and at the creation of communities, from a slightly different angle. My supper table discussion focused on how members of the community at Virtual Ability in Second Life® discover/figure out/create/ learn ways to “belong” and feel connected to people physically residing all over the world. Block names shared experiences, shared contexts, and the back-and-forth of listening/ paying attention to each other as the critical aspects of a community that offers the power to transform us from isolated to together, from disconnected to connected.

When Virtual Ability started, the founders recognized how easily disability can get in the way of connecting. So, one part of Virtual Ability’s mission is to provide people with disabilities with a supportive environment so they can enter and thrive in virtual worlds. Accessibility, universal design, and assistive technology are part Virtual Ability, but the sense of belonging seems the most significant reality.

Connecting? Belonging? Listening? Sharing? Inclusivity? Freedom? Equality? Those are some of the things that I talk about when I describe my friendships and my experiences in-world. How would you describe the sense of community that certainly seems to make Virtual Ability unique?

Virtual Ability, Inc. is a non-profit corporation based in Colorado, USA. Our mission is to enable people with a wide range of disabilities by providing a supporting environment for them to enter and thrive in online virtual worlds like Second Life®. Visit www.virtualability.org