On Saturday the 16th of August, the Virtual Ability community (VAI) celebrated six wonderfully successful years since the organisation opened its first island in Second Life. VAI held a party for its community. DJ Danger Lytton provided great tunes for listening and dancing. The dance floor was surrounded by slideshows and photo boards filled with memories of the community's numerous activities since its start in 2008.
While it began operation as The Heron Sanctuary in 2007, Virtual Ability,® Inc. opened their first island in 2008, with a mission 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®.Since its inception, the community has grown in size to nearly 1,000 members comprised of people with disabilities, their friends, families and caregivers, along with medical personnel, researchers and educators from all across the world. Virtual Ability owns six SL islands.
In keeping with its mission, Virtual Ability partners with different organizations on initiatives like AVESS, developing best practices for providing on-line peer-to-peer support services for military amputees and their families. VAI also provides inworld services, employment and accessibility information for people with disabilities. Virtual Ability hosts two annual professional conferences: the Mental Health Symposium in spring and the International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference (IDRAC), coming up in early October this year.The group looks forward to many more years of activity, continued peer support and growth in virtual worlds. For more information about the organization, visit our website at http://www.virtualability.org.
Gentle Heron and Skye Silverweb
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