CNN iReport

Vision Quest is an experiential hunt game in Second Life (SL) exploring the special relationship between a guide dog and a guided person with visual disabilities. This hunt includes a contest for the best written story experience. This is one of many contests related to the Helen Keller Day events sponsored by Virtual Helping Hands, and many other contributors (described in Janey's excellent iReport http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-270433 )

One of the best aspects of this contest is: everyone gets a free SL dog! Meet your guide dog at Wheelies store. Here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Taupo/162/88/24  This is no ordinary SL pet, but a sophisticated and intelligent working animal with over 30 dog tricks. I named my dog Linda. Linda can find people and objects for me, remember and move towards landmarks, describe objects, and many other "assistive" services.

The Vision Quest begins and ends here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Olde/39/89/30 At this site, you can watch a very touching video about RL guide dogs and the people they assist for life. http://www.guidedogs.com/site/PageServer?pagename=resources_video_soulmates

  This video explains the substantial time and love that goes into training a guide dog, and the special bond that forms between guide dog and the assisted person. At all the sites there is a Vision Quest poster which gives clues about the next destination. It is not intended to be a difficult game of hide and seek, but the focus is on the experience of using your dog to achieve goals, such as finding people and objects.

Picture Captions:

Picture #1 is me (on the right) with Franchella Milena and our guide dogs Linda and Max. She said "I just got my dog and down louded his voice. Now I'm trying to shut him up! lol" I could tell Franchesa and Max took an instant liking to each other.

Picture #2 are the beginning of Vision Quest. Click on this poster (#2) to open the first clues and see the video (discussed above).

Picture #3 and #4 are at also at the hunt starting point. Very cute Teddy! You can get free special edition Teddy Bears at the main Helen Keller Day sim http://slurl.com/secondlife/Faire/78/215/36

Picture #5 is me getting a dog's eye view of the hunt by taking a quick nap in a people-sized dog bed! These are located in cute dog houses too (hint: the dog houses are on a platform floating next to the one with the dark rooms).

In Pictures #6 and #7, I am chatting with one of the creators of Vision Quest, Jenaia Morane, (left in #6 and right in #7). She was assisted by Marty Snowpaws, Louise Later, Saxet Uralia, Charles Mountain, and many others.

In the Vision Quest team's own words, this is Vision Quest:

Vision Quest Celebrates Launch of Virtual Guidedog in Second Life

No one thought it was possible.  In fact, when members of Virtual Helping Hands (VHH) first proposed building a guidedog dog for the blind in Second Life they were ridiculed. "What are blind people doing in Second Life anyway?" one member recalls being asked.

While it is true that Second Life is largely a visual envirnoment, it is also an ideal place for the disabled to explore, form social networks, take classes, start businesses, and experience a wide range of people, languages, and cultures.  Second Life also offers access to an amazing variety of audio content including live music performances, presentations by speakers, and educational forums.  For the determined and farsighted members of VHH, the question was NOT "why are the blind in Second Life," but what could be done to make their Second Lives easier?

Enter Max the guidedog.  Max is a handsome German Sheperd with kind brown eyes and a wet black nose.  He is designed to help the visually impaired navigate Second Life by: Finding any object (including another avatar) and take the avatar he is leading to it. Giving his avatar constant feedback on what is in the immediate surrounding area.  This enables his avatar to not only navigate and avoid crashing into other people and objects, but get a sense of what is in the area that might be of interest.

Max's launch begins on June 20th with a "Vision Quest" designed to help participants experience what it is like to work with a guidedog and write stories about those experiences. Please see http://www.tvwsp.com/questing/visionquests.html for details.

Saturday, June 27th, is Helen Keller Day and the official celebration of Max's arrival in Second Life.  The overall  theme and goal of the event is, "Inclusion for everyone in employment, education, entertainment, and social engagement through Second Life." A wide range of creative and thought provoking events are planned including:

- Keynotes by Keller Johnson Thompson (Helen Keller's great grandniece), Pathfinder Linden, and Marcie Roth (Executive Director of  ational Coalition for Disability Rights) - Speakers and panel discussions on Education, Employment, Entertainment, and Social

Engagment
- Guidedog Wheelchair Races
- Where's Max Flickr contest
- An Accessiblity Building Contest
- Sound Sculpture displays
- See with Sound presentations
- Dog Park Play with SL canines
- A Gold Mine Game
- 3D Wiki Game
- A "Style-Enabled" fashion show
- Guide Dog Memorial Park

For information on the Vision Quest, please see

http://www.tvwsp.com/questing/visionquests.html or contact Jena Ball (aka Jenaia Morane in Second Life) at Jenaia (at) tvwsp.com.

For a full list of events and times, please contact Janyth Ussery (aka Saxet Uralia in Second Life) at saxeturalia (at) gmail.com