Assistant Professor of Technical Communications Lisa Ortiz has been awarded a Virtual Learning Prize from the New Media Consortium (NMC) for developing a program that will help students experience life with a disability. The program, Experience Virtual Disabilities, will be used on the virtual online simulation Second Life, which will be open to the students and faculty by the fall.

“Students will be able to experience disabilities virtually; what life is like being blind or deaf,” Ortiz says.

Four disabilities: vision, hearing, motor and cognitive impairments, can be experienced. Each disability will have a range of levels that will either increase or decrease its severity.

“Students will be able to better understand how people with disabilities live,” Ortiz says.

Ortiz submitted her idea to the NMC along with 75 others; only eight were chosen for development. Winners were given $4,500 in expert development assistance to help get their idea off the ground.

Second Life is a free, Web-based online program where users can communicate with others and interact with their virtual environment. Metro State purchased a region in Second Life solely dedicated to students and faculty, appropriately named Roadrunner Island. Many universities around the country use this program to enhance the online learning experience for their students.

According to Yvonne Flood, assistant vice president of Information Technology, Second Life could be used as a virtual classroom for students. “Students can attend workshops, classes and even complete assignments,” she says.

Ortiz hopes that Roadrunner Island will be up and running for the fall semester.

Flood encourages faculty, staff and students to log on to Second Life, http://secondlife.com/, to get a feel for how the program works.