The Blind Users Support Group

When it comes to using computers, it's pretty difficult for most of us to imagine using one's computer without their eyes. But that's what some residents do, either being legally blind or having total blindness. The Newser recently interviewed the head of the Blind Users Support Group, Mermaid Celene (CeleneHighwater Resident). So how would a blind person get about Second Life and how has the group been doing?

Read the interview in People.

Mermaid Celene About The Radegast Viewer

Second Life can allow the disabled to do things they couldn't normally do in real life. But what if the disability is visual impairment to the point of legal blindness or full blindness? Deaflegacy recently interviewed Mermaid Celene (celenehighwater), the head of the Blind Users Viewer Support group, and a member of the Radegast group. Mermaid talked about what the Radegast viewer is, and how it allows the blind to use Second Life.

Read Deaflegacy's story in People.

Announcement: Accessibility Planning Meeting at Virtual Ability

Accessibility Planning Meeting
Hostess: CeleneHighwater
When: Tuesday, Sept 5
Times: 1:00 PM, and repeat at 4:30 PM SLT
Place: Cabana Classroom, Virtual Ability Island

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/44/138/23

Come join us as we have a lively discussion about inworld accessibility planning. We will toss around ideas for projects, and inworld improvements, big and small, to help the disabled Second Life users get the most out of their inworld experience.

Radegast Text-Based Viewer Opens SL to a New Community

Second Life has opened a virtual world of possibilities to the public. But what about those whom are visually impaired or blind? Celene Highwater (Mermaid Celene) writes about Ragegast, a text-based viewer designed by Latif Khalifa. For those with problems with sight, the viewer can make all the difference in accessing the Grid.

Read Celene's article in Design.

Addition: Earlier the link was broken, it's fixed now.

September 2014 Crew Meeting

On Saturday September 6, The Newser held it's monthly crew meeting. Those attending were Gemma Cleanslate, DrFran Babcock, Wesley Regenbogen, Theonlyjohnny Resident, Mermaid Celene (Celenehighwater), and Editor Bixyl Shuftan. Also there was Any1 Gynoid, whom has an interesting history with the paper.

Topics included subjects such as September 11th and Talk Like a Pirate Day. Also discussed was about an interview of a former wrestler that had to be pulled when some readers from the wrestling community told of having never heard from him. No one had pulled one over the paper like this before, and it was resolved we would be more careful about writing about wrestlers none of us had heard from.

But not all was of serious matters. DrFran showed off her pet pink kitty, which she had gotten from a gacha. This got a few jokes, including one from Any1 asking if she being a catgirl should get on someone's lap as well.

Bixyl Shuftan