By Nazz Lane In August of 2008 I wrote an article for this newspaper on the opening of a new SIM, Virtual Ability Island. I’d met and interviewed Gentle Heron, founder and president of Virtual Ability Inc. (VAI), a RL 501(c) 3 Corporation. Since then the VAI presence in SL has expanded. The first change occurred in November, when VAI partnered with Cap Able, a leading community that supports the hearing impaired. In the partnership, VAI became the owner of the Cape Able SIM and has plans to develop it to further enhance their capability in meeting its mission of providing an “orientation and training center for people with disabilities and chronic illnesses”. A second expansion came about when it was announced that VAI would become one of the Community Gateway choices available to all new residents who sign up for SL with Linden Lab.
I caught up with Ms Heron recently. We met in her skybox office, several hundred meters above the orientation center on the VAI SIM. We exchanged pleasantries while I waited for things to rezz. When they did, I took a seat across from Gentle and we began the interview.
Nazz Lane: It seems that SL is rather slow today.
Gentle Heron: We had a whole bunch of new arrivals come in for the Stepping into Science Conference, which slows things down.
Nazz Lane: I had just read a press announcement about Virtual Ability becoming one of the Community Gateway choices. I thought you had one of the best orientation programs around ... congratulations Gentle. How’s it going?
Gentle Heron: Yes, since January 26th, still a few kinks to work out. We used a research-based approach, with community development input in developing our orientation. It makes it a bit slower, but we like our results.
Nazz Lane: I also saw information about the partnership with Cape Able, was it a partnership or an acquisition?
Gentle Heron: It was an acquisition, as we announced it in November. They were an existing community for D/deaf and hard of hearing people. They were very socially isolated and by acquiring them, we can integrate them into SL society, which after all is a major goal of the Virtual Ability group.
Nazz Lane: How did the acquisition come about?
Gentle Heron: Interestingly Treasure Ballinger approached us. The former owner had a RL health crisis and couldn't continue. Treasure knew of our group and came over for a chat.
Nazz Lane: How long did it take to work out the details?
Gentle Heron: Less than a month. We had to move fast or they would have lost the SIM.
Nazz Lane: Is the integration complete?
Gentle Heron: Yes, it is. It was a residential SIM and we kept the estate manager, Treasure Ballinger. She now is a member of the Virtual Ability, Inc. RL Board. She is in charge of the rental property on Cape Able. But there are two other facilities there of interest, one is a Service Center with tons of resources both for the D/deaf community and the community of the disabled in general. The other is an art gallery run by an RL art curator, Nicolo Anthony. The gallery features works by deaf and other disabled artists. It will reopen the SIM in February with a Grand Opening celebration, featuring two SL artists. The opening will take place on Feb 22nd from 2-6 pm SLT,
Nazz Lane: So the transition has gone well?
Gentle Heron: Folks from the Cape Able community have begun to come to Virtual Ability social events, and mingle, and our folks have gone to their events, and a few have moved over to Cape Able. So it's working well. Treasure is going to make a presentation to our folks about speaking with someone whose native language is ASL not English, the words are similar, but the grammar isn't and sometimes people who speak ASL are taken for stupid by those who don't understand but they truly speak a different language. Treasure's presentation on ASL will also be given at the Dreams Community Fair in February. We always participate in that, it’s a great way to support the community at large.
Nazz Lane: ASL is the American Sign Language?
Gentle Heron: Yes, but typed out instead of signing. There is a display about the grammar differences in the Service Center.
Nazz Lane: So now with two SIMs ... and with this being one of the communities of choice for new avatars ... what else is in the plans for VAI?
Gentle Heron: Oh my, well we've been working with the SecondAbility Mentors group. They serve as helpers for our newcomers. There are bells along the newcomer orientation trail that anyone can ring for assistance and that sends a message to any SAM wearing their HUD the first SAM to respond then is given the SLURL and can TP directly to the person needing assistance. Those bells are now used at the Autism Society of America here in SL, and at the London SIMs. We had a volunteer scripter who created the bell/HUD system. What else we are doing is providing a wiki of resources in SL that the SAMs can use to refer people to for additional specialized assistance.
