Attendees: Fran Bard, Grace Grantham, Gail Jacobs, Mike
Rantz, Linda Spies, Clark Germann, Scott Houck, Patricia Guthrie,
Sharon Manchester, Jane Broida
The meeting was called to order at 2:40 p.m. Jane Broida welcomed
the group and asked everyone to introduce themselves. Professor
Clark Germann provided an overview to the history of the Metropolitan
State College of Denver's (MSCD) virtual reality (VR) projects.
Clark began teaching a VR class about four years ago. A student
in the class, Will Spence, did a paper on how the technology can
assist people with disabilities. During the Fall of 1997, Jane
Broida heard Clark do a presentation on VR and together, they
began to explore the potential of using VR for community integration.
A $2,000 MSCD Provost's Incentive grant was received to develop
the Golden Recreation
Center into a VR site. Scott Houck directed production and
Will Spence assisted. The Golden VR project was tested with people
with disabilities and feedback from the participants has been
integrated into recent VR production projects.
A large amount of grant money was applied for, and the Community
Access Through Technology (CATT) project was awarded funding,
beginning in October 1999.
Next, Jane provided an overview to the CATT project. A summary
will be available on a handout at the next meeting.
Role of the Consumer Advisory Council:
The role of the Consumer Advisory Council (CAC) was discussed.
Members will be asked to:
- View the virtual scenes as they are developed and to provide
feedback (Feedback on the 20th Street Gym project will be solicited
around the beginning of March.)
- Help find subjects to participate in the research portions
of the project (Over 100 individuals with disabilities will
be needed to participate over the three year project period.)
More individuals can serve on the CAC so if anyone knows of another
individual that might be interested in participating, please have
them contact Jane at 303-556-4206 or e-mail broidaj@mscd.edu.
Finally, each CAC member was asked to complete an information
sheet. Clark took photographs for the CATT project web site, and
more pizza and pop was consumed.
Everyone was thanked for participating. The meeting adjourned
at 3:50 p.m.
