Steve Hansen, School of Computing & Mathematics. University of Western Sydney, Campbelltown Campus,Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC 1797 s.hansen@uws.edu.au
This paper provides a review from the current academic and popular literature of current initiatives in providing alternative user interfaces for virtual worlds. Second Life as a current popular 3D online multiuser virtual environments (MUVEs) is looked at in particular. These initiatives are to address various accessibility issues for the visual, hearing and motion impaired rather than in the areas of intellectual or cognitive. These initiatives cover the use of variable sound for 3D simulation, hepatic devices working with other senses, use of speech to text, enriched multi-media environments and alternate client software.
On September 9, 2007, the Accessibility Center opened on HealthInfo Island (NPSL,
2007). The Accessibility Center provides continuing education and awareness
about disabilities, however, if you actually wish to visit it, you will not find
in the physical world, but rather in the virtual world of Second Life (you can
teleport there!). The information available at this Center includes material
about specific types of disabilities, accessibility in electronic games and
virtual worlds, as well as assistive technology in the real world. As the
current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
[HREF1] does not directly address
this area and type of web application interface, this paper provides a synopsis
of some current issues in the use and the human interfacing of virtual worlds
and the needs of their communities.
Section 2 of this paper gives an overview of the social-orientated virtual
worlds, their scope and usages and identified accessibility issues, Section 3
covers various alternative interfaces and their implications for various
communities, followed by the concluding summary section.
With the development of higher capacity graphics systems in the domestic PC, and broadband internet speeds, the rise of global multi-user 3D games, massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) has now moved into 3D extensions of social networks, such as Second Life and ActiveWorlds. A list of some of these is given in Table 1. As an alternative interface for web applications and in the general public arena, issues of accessibility particularly of the visually impaired, have been discussed openly in the popular literature on the web ie, (Forum, 2007; NPSL, 2007; Peters & Lori, 2007; Qi, 2007) and in various academic arenas. As can be seen from Table 1, there are many available 3D virtual worlds for specialized and generalized usage.
Table 1. List of some currently available virtual worlds, from Virtual World Review [HREF2]
Activities in these worlds now include all forms of commerce from advertising to products (both real and virtual) , various forms of education (EduservCETIS, n.d.), information and promotion as in the Accessibility Center opened on HealthInfo Island in Second Life, through to all forms of social networking (Woolley, 2007). Further, as taken up by New Scientist in June 2007 (Biever, 2007), the virtual environment has applications to a range of people with conditions such Asperger's syndrome.
Continuing the above, before the Accessibility Center opened in September, in June 2007, there was a virtual debate in Second Life titled “Is Second Life really accessible to those with disabilities?” This was sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP) and the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication explored (Qi, 2007). The panel was made up of Judy Brewer (Charioteer Voom in SL), the director of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) at W3C and Bruce Bailey (Phivo8 Writer in SL), an Accessibility IT Specialist on the United States Access Board. According to Qui (2007) the presenters used audio stream, with content textually captioned so that all could participate and:
“Judy Brewer led off the discussion with an interesting personal note. ‘When I first came into Second Life, I found I had acquired some abilities. I could walk (I can’t walk in real life); I could fly; I could even teleport. I felt more comfortable seated and so got a Segway [scooter] to move around in-world.’ ” [HREF3]
Issues of usability, that are being currently identified, focus at this stage mainly on access by the visual, hearing and motor impaired communities rather than the extended special needs groups. As the virtual worlds by definition imply 3D and a highly visual environment, this has already generated some alternatives as will be discussed in section 3. For the hearing impaired, the most popular MUVEs such as Active World and Second Life have a substantial text interface to complement spoken sound. Keyboard and mouse interactions alternatives are covered as in Section 508 standards [HREF4] as for web access.
In addition to accessibility advantages, the integration of sound and speech with avatars in the 3D context have been shown in a number of studies (i.e. Lingyun & Izak, 2005) to have positive effects in the general community.
The accessibility standards as set in Section 508 an the W3C WAI are considered by some to be too restrictive and awkward for application from a 2D world to a 3D. Discussion as from Brain Kelly, (Kelly, 2008):-
“If your views on accessibility are based on compliance with guidelines (especially WAI’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) and you feel that all digital resources must be universally accessible to everyone, you may feel that an inherently graphical and interactive environment such as Second Life is unlikely to be accessible.”
However, as Kelly goes on to elaborate with a U-Tube example of Second Life video clip of a user with cerebral palsy, Judith, using Second Life with a headwand in the “Wheelies” Club. In response to the question “Do you think that this will be a really useful tool for people who are unable to get around, who have problems of mobility in real life?” Judith replies “Yes, because you can have friends without having to go out and physically find them“ .
A further example of current usage of Second Life by the “disabled” community is given by the Wilde Cunningham avatar which is controlled by a group of nine cerebral palsy adults and their nurse. They are described as relying on carers for almost all aspects of their daily lives. They represent a range of ages from 30 to 70 years and a mix of genders (four men and five ladies) Even though they are wheelchair users,
“Yet in Second Life they have built their own houses, have pets, gardens, even a baseball field. They also have many close friends and a large social network. “Second Life gives me the chance to be the person I feel I was born to be,” says John S, 32, one of the group. “Being in Second Life is how I imagine an innocent man who had been locked up wrongly feels when he is finally set free. In Second Life I get to call the shots.” For John S, the virtual world is all about being free from his disability but for Simon Stevens, who also suffers from cerebral palsy, it is equally about making disabled people visible” (Deeley, 2007)
As pointed by Kelly et al (Kelly, 2008; Kelly et al., 2007) “Should institutions really be developing policies which prevent use of services such as Second Life on grounds of inaccessibility?” and if so “ who will explain the reasons for such decisions to users such as Judith?”.
This is further supported by Peter Abrahams of Bloor Research in his article “ Second Life is now too important not to be accessible” (Abrahams, 2007), where he elaborates on the significance of Second Life now given by large companies such as IBM and Sun as they move significant activities into this medium. Abrahams also gives practical suggestions in tandem with current accessibility ideas as given below.
1. Include an accessibility section in the help.
2. Make the help screens accessible without a mouse.
3. Make the text in help sizable.
4. Make any text on the client configurable for size and color, including the menus, the avatar names, messages.
5. Enable the numbering of objects on the screen so that instead of having to click on an object you can choose the object by number (rather like the 'say what you see feature' in Vista).
6. A text-to-voice feature for chat, in stereo so that the avatars location can be estimated, and the ability to configure the voice to fit the avatar.
7. Provide a text list of avatars in the vicinity and voice announcements of entries and exits.
8. Simulation of an electronic white stick.
The business community 2007 Gartner Symposium/ITxpo (BusinessWire, 2007) states that by 2010, 80 percent of active Internet users (and Fortune 500 enterprises) will have a presence in a virtual world such as Second Life. As stated from the vice president Steve Prentice,
“The collaborative and community-related aspects of these environments will dominate in the future, and significant transaction-based commercial opportunities will be limited to niche areas, which have yet to be clearly identified… However, the majority of active Internet users and major enterprises will find value in participating in this area in the coming years.”
This paper puts forward that in considering the development of accessibility “standards” or initiatives, recognition needs to be given to the range of users and potential developers. In this context the five “laws” that the Gartner group put forward for companies participating in the virtual world can be considered in terms of user interfaces and accessibility. Quoting from their release, they put forward the following:-
First Law: Virtual worlds are not games, but neither are they a parallel universe (yet). The initial reaction of many business leaders when faced with virtual worlds is to dismiss them as a mere “game” of no benefit to the enterprise and something to be banned for wasting compute resources and time. Many of those that see beyond the gaming elements immediately veer toward questions such as “How do we exploit this as a sales channel?” This reaction is equally incorrect and potentially even more damaging to the enterprise. “Growth in virtual worlds is significant but lower than it appears; the overall population of non-game virtual worlds is still small compared to massively multi-user online games (MMOGs) and the totality of community-oriented and niche-targeted environments,” Mr. Prentice said.
Second Law: Behind every avatar is a real person. Gartner said people can’t be fooled by the fantasy elements in the virtual world. There are unwritten rules and expectations for behavior and culture are developing. Enterprise users must consider their corporate reputations.
Third Law: Be relevant and add value. Many commercial companies have established a virtual world presence, but none have converted it into an effective, profitable sales channel. There has been criticism of early corporate entries into the virtual world, Second Life, related to the showrooms usually being empty and lacking atmosphere. While there have been a limited number of individuals who have earned more than $5,000 per year from their virtual world businesses, most corporations will see minimal revenue gains in the market at this time. “Do not expect to undertake profitable commercial activities inside most virtual worlds in the next three years,” Mr. Prentice said.
Fourth Law: Understand and contain the downside. Enterprises face serious questions, such as “Could activities in the virtual world undermine or influence my organization/brand in the real world?” With significant portions of the virtual economy based on adult oriented activities, questions of appropriate behavior and ethics also arrive. In-world behavior can be a problem in public areas; annoying interruptions can range from unintentional arrivals and erratic behavior from new residents whose avatar control is still suspect to misdemeanors such as graffiti, to more-concerted protest activities designed to disrupt.
Fifth Law: This is a long haul. Today’s multiplicity of virtual environments has developed through the convergence of social networking, simulation and online gaming. There are many new entrants, whose stability and scalability are not yet established. There is significant probability that, over time, market pressures will lead to a merging of current virtual worlds into a smaller number of open-sourced environments that support the free transfer of assets and avatars from one to another with the use of a single, universal client. (BusinessWire, 2007)
Taking into account the “inertia” to technological change as indicated in the “first law”, the Gartner release gives support to new areas of technology-human interfaces and associated issues in virtual worlds, in particular the broad scope, needs and requirements of participants. Current initiatives in addressing accessibility issues in Second Life have concentrated on providing interfaces for those with sensory or motor difficulties rather than in the cognitive domain. These interfaces are typically addressing navigation and alternative communication methods to either complement or replace the visual. These are discussed in the following section.
As discussed by White (White, 2007) and Verhoeven (Verhoeven, 2007), many of the current visual magnifiers and related products such as Dolpin’s Supernova or Desktopzoom have problems interacting with the Second Life client software. These problems can be addressed in future or specialised compiles of the client viewer.
For those with no visual ability, a number of sound proximity or sound doplar schemes have been developed over the last few years, (Jaime, 2007; Jaime & Mauricio, 2005; Milena, Alissa, & Ron, 2007; VirtualWorldNews, 2007) These work on a number of principles, making use of sound differences to the ears to give directional information and by changes of sound in approaching or leaving, the proximity of objects.
In a September, 2007 media release, according to the BBC (Adams-Spink, 2007), IBM is developing a complete 3D sonar style audio environment as part of their accessibility initiatives. Although originally developed for use on Active World, it will have direct applications also for Second Life. The release claims "When the user comes into the world, the items are described as well as their positions,…There is also sound attached - for example, if there's a tree nearby you will hear a rustling of leaves," Part of this approach is the development of tools using text to speech software that reads out the text chats from fellow avatars. In addition, a "sonar" can be attached to them so to give the user audible cues for approach, direction and range.
Second Life is currently implementing their own voice system described by Linden (Linden, 2007) as;
“This technology uses spatial awareness, taking distance, direction, and rotation into account, for a more realistic experience. Basically, you’ll be able to tell who is talking in a group since the voice will sound like it’s coming from that direction. We’re also working hard on an initial set of avatar animations, which change and trigger according to the intensity of speech”
Standard keyboard interfaces as a currently used by the disabled community are applicable for Second Life as for general computer and internet usage. In addition as in the example of Judith who has cerebral palsy as given previously, there are a variety of headwands and the like.
There are also a variety of haptic devices that give various degrees of touch sensations to assist usually as some form of “joystick”. There may also be some form of accompanying audio sounds. A number of these devices have been designed for the games industry such as the Novint Falcon (Novint, 2008) as shown in figure 1. In general, the games developed devices being cheaper than the general purpose commercial devices such as developed by SensAble Technologies, see figure 2.
Figure 1 The Novint Falcon a haptic device for VR navigation. From the company web site [HREF5]
Figure 2 “Phantom” haptic device from SensAble Technologies, from the company web site [HREF6]
In a release from Sirslabs in January 2008 (SIRSLab, 2008), two haptic modules have been developed by Sirslabs to work under a modified Second Life client. These modules are claimed to support the current major haptic devices.
In October 2007, the Biomedical Engineering Laboratory at Keio University in Japan (bme.bio.keio.ac.jp, 2007) announced a brain-computer interface that enables users to control the movements of Second Life avatars from a headset containing electrodes. The electrodes monitor electrical activity in the motor cortex, the region of the brain involved in planning, executing and controlling movements. By imagining various movements, the brain activity is used to control the movements, in real time, of a user’s avatar as shown in figure 3. A U-Tube demonstration is given at [HREF7].
Figure 3. “Mind control” of an avatar from [REF8]
In January 2007, Second Life released the source code for their client “viewer” as open source. This was in part as a response to various requests from workers in the accessibility arena and enables the development of interfaces to address the whole range of accessibility issues (Life, 2007). There are currently a number of initiatives coming from the open-course community to develop this client (Libsecondlife, 2007).
In addition there have been a number of “cut-down” varieties of the client-viewer that can enable quick, easy but restricted access into Second Life. An example being Moveable Life (MoveableLife, 2007), which allows Second Life users to log into Second Life with a web browser and limits functionality to mainly chat, IM, search, teleport, manage friends and groups. Graphics is not available and the interface is text-based. These cut-down versions have many possibilities in addressing non-visual accessibility issues.
The increased power of domestic computers and graphics systems, with the increasing internet speeds, has enhanced the take up and use of the 3D environment for all forms of online social networking in addition to gaming. The move to use this medium for commerce and education is also well underway. This puts an added layer onto the existing W3C initiatives into developing recommendations for the Web 2.0 to include the MUVE web applications. The MUVE community is currently attempting to address some of the accessibility issues, but are currently still in the beginning stages. This is especially the case in terms of cognitive needs and accessibility issues.
As the “content” of the virtual worlds is mainly created by the users and includes virtual objects such as buildings, roads and the sky, accessibility methods of tagging for assistive or alternative technologies to use have still be developed or experimented in. Indeed the concepts of “authoring” and content management, which is still being developed for the 2D text-based web, are still to be addressed in this medium.
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