Please not the term disabled is used here to avoid a Gordian knot of politically correct terms.
I just had a weekend away as a volunteer helping at a place called the “Calvert Trust” this is UK based and has centres to enable people with disabilities to benefit from outdoor activities in the countryside.
The centre I visited was based at Kielder in Northumberland. Visitors do activities like Archery, Laser Clay Pigeon Shooting, Sailing, Canoeing, Zip wire, Abseiling just to name a few. They also have indoor activities to use when the Northumbrian weather prevails.
The centre has a lot of facilities that make wide use of the resource that’s provided by Kielder water.
During the day there are loads of activities but once it gets dark things get a bit limited.
I was thinking the centre could provide a place where we could have a resource that had the hardware required to allow those of limited mobility to experience an introduction to a virtual environment.
I know of Uru players who have various disabilities that you would normally not expect to participate in activities we have enjoyed as avatars. Here I am thinking of the rock push in Er’cana. One of our long term players has issues using a keyboard due to spinal issues that plays games in a group environment using Dragon Speak for typing. Meeting as an avatar gives participants the chance to meet people with their disabilities totally invisible to the people they meet.
In the past I have logged in as her and effectively levelled up her avatar so she could use all of her books. There was for example the jump in Ghereesen she could not do and this was required to complete the pillars and get the link to the Cleft.
Now I know the location at Kielder is a nightmare for connecting to the internet, mobile (cell) phone reception is just impossible they do have some wifi but it is mediocre at best. So joining Deep Island and using it up there would be impossible.
I was thinking of building an Alcugs server (Alcugs because then we could host all the fan ages and build some new ages specific to the site). The server would be run locally using cabled Ethernet.
I know we could build standalone games but I want to introduce users to the cooperative aspect door runs and the option of being guided around a virtual environment by another operating from another location on site, an avatar being used by another user who may or may not be disabled themselves.
There’s also the options of flymode and the option of building their own worlds using Blender.
I have hardware we could use to build just such a server but I do need to have a guru I can pick the brains from. I have built Linux web servers so I do know my way around most of the hardware and software. I have yet to have a successful build of a shard.
I have downloaded the instructions from the github and would plan on documenting the process to make that into an idiot guide.
Once built the equipment will probably be donated to “The Calvert Trust” with free support.
The disabled visitors already have their own computer equipment usually laptops and spend a lot of time on Facebook etc.
I am just thinking of another activity for visitors that could expand their home use of computer equipment they currently have.