Virtual spaces for building friendships and learning about lifelong disability

This cross disciplinary collaborative project builds on Molde University College's research and teaching strengths in disability, informatics and sports management. Adults with lifelong disability (intellectual disability, cerebral palsy) are more lonely and isolated than their nondisabled peers. Loneliness impacts on health and well-being, thus these adults have increased risk of health problems and concomitant service use. Little is known about the potential of virtual worlds as a learning and social re source for people with lifelong disability or for students who may work with this group on graduation. We will explore the social and educational potentials of a virtual world using Second Life (SL) as the technology platform. Communication in SL is media ted using built in functions for private or public textual chat or voice through 3D characters. The research team, including a doctoral student, will collaborate with people with disability to identify enjoyable meaningful activites. The team will create a virtual space where people with disability can engage in these activities with others. The researchers will support disabled people to enter this virtual space and will identify if interactions in a virtual world reduce loneliness and increase social co nnectedness. Students from nursing, social education and sports management will undertake learning tasks with people with disability in the virtual space. The impact of these tasks on their attitudes to and understanding of people with disability will be measured. Outcomes will include (a) a protocol on how to support people with disability entering a virtual world, (b) new information on the potential of virtual worlds to reduce loneliness and increase social networks for a marginalised group, (c) measur ement of the impact of student learning tasks in virtual media on students' attitudes towards disability (d) new theory on the affordances of virtual worlds and the benefits for individuals and networked groups.