One of the great things about Second Life is the chance to take great imaginative leaps within its virtual confines. And with no other group is this more true than for those with disabilities, reports the Voice of America news.

The article interviews two RL users, Alice Krueger and Ron Sidell, as they describe what it’s like to use Second Life while being mostly confined to wheelchairs. Said Krueger:

Here in this life I’m pretty much confined to my home and this room. I don’t see adults. It’s difficult to go out and talk with people. It’s really nice to be able to go out and dance. I love to dance.

Sidell appreciates the ability to move freely in Second Life: “When I see my avatar dancing, the parts of my brain think movement. They sometimes feel what their avatar is doing.”

A third subject of the story is Vitolo Rossini, who suffered a traumatic brain injury and now teaches people to train virtual dogs in SL, a skill that can be transferred to the real world. Rossini has also opened a center for victims of traumatic brain injury, which can be found by searching for TBI in SL.

Krueger has also helped open Virtual Ability, a non-profit with a space in SL and in Colorado that helps people with disabilities navigate virtual worlds.

Mark Dubin designs virtual world tools and had this to say about how SL can help those with disabilities become less isolated:

Depression lifts, people become more excited and interested. It’s not that they learn to overcome [their disabilities]. To use the proper phrase, they are differently abled, and Second Life enables those differences to be functional.