by VERDE OTAARED
Photos by VERDE OTAARED, JENAIA MORANE, FRANCHELLA MILENA, CorDeROSA LOIRE

Helen Keller Day (June 27) was celebrated in Second Life with the launch of the first virtual guide dog. Christened Max, who was developed by Virtual Helping Hands (http://www.virtualhelpinghands.org/), a non-profit organization that works to help the disabled get into a function in virtual space. Max helps the blind and sight-impaired get around Second Life on their own.

Max's arrival in Second Life was marked by a variety of events, contests, and thought provoking presentations. One the most creative and engaging was the Vision Quest developed by Jenaia Morane, the founder of The Virtual Worlds Story Project (www.tvwsp.com). "The Vision Quest is based loosely on the Native American concept of the Vision Quest as a way to expand awareness and gain insight," says Morane. "Vision Quests take participants on journeys designed to explore the question, "What does it mean to see, and how might seeing differently change how you live your life?"

Participants in the Vision Quest were taken on a four-step journey to explore what it is like to be blind and work with a guide dog. They also had a choice between experiencing the Quest from the perspective of a blind person or the viewpoint of a guide dog. Regardless of the perspective, questers received a beta version of Max to find clues that helped them navigate the Quest.

After completing the four steps, participants were encouraged to write a story and submit it for consideration for cash prizes totaling $300. The winners of this year's Vision Quest were:

1st Place Winner: Franchella Milena (aka Pat Facciponti in her first life)

Teacher, photographer, videographer, academic technologist, GIS mapper; wife, parent and grandparent; animal-lover and historic preservationist; writer and poet, Pat Facciponti enjoys studying and writing about just about anything.  Franchella Milena, her alter ego, was born into Second Life in January 2008.  Together, Franchella and Pat collaborate on adventures of discovery, learning, writing, building, and teaching in Second Life.  For her efforts, Franchella will receive $10,000 Lindens and the HKD award.

JOURNEYS and INTERSECTIONS

Part I: Solomon the Wise
Long before weaning they’d dubbed him Solomon the Wise.
He’d scan the kennel, ears perked at each unexpected noise,
As if he alone were designated guardian of them all.
“This is Solomon,” the manager stroked the wag-tailed labrador,
“He watches over us,” he joked. The visitor did not laugh but scrawled a note.
Soon Solomon was one of 18 hand-picked puppies on their way to they knew not where.
Their stacked cages rocked and pitched as the truck bumped along the backroads.
One after another was delivered to joyous open arms,
But not Solomon, who laid his golden head upon his paws and wondered.
At last they rolled down gravel trails to a well-worn farmhouse.
Children tumbled off the porch like apples from a toppled basket.
Warm arms and impish faces encircled the remaining puppy. He was home, for now.

A year and some months later, as morning broke across the country kitchen,
Solomon gazed out from the crate’s wide open door.
Like an airborne braided river, a web of rich aromas:
Coffee, bacon, toast and sizzling eggs, swirled past his quivering nose.
But this morning an unknown something hovered on the air.
Little Freddy toddled to the crate and for the first time crawled inside,
Rested head upon the dog’s warm belly, whimpered softly, drifted off to sleep.
Solomon curled around the child, muzzle laid across his back.
Change was coming, Solomon thought, not likely for the good. 

Another trip, another place, new people, fresh routines:
Seeing Eye school was a romp of fun and games and buoyant canine friends.
Each morning brought new challenges, praise, and savory treats.
Solomon sped through training like a super mouse upon a table maze.
His handler, firm, fair, clear on the expected, soon earned the dog’s respect.
But it was Solomon the Wise who seemed to grasp the job’s most vital skill:
When to obey commands and when it was wiser to assess a situation on his own.

The building pattered with the beat of unfamiliar feet. 
Expectation wafted on the breeze.  One by one,
Handlers carried his fellow classmates, ears laid back, beyond the kennel door.
When Solomon’s trainer came to cradle him, scratch his ears,
Murmur comfort sounds, he knew his path was nearing yet another turn.
The lounge, alive with visitors laughing, crying, hugging puppies,
Was a sea of wagging tails, upturned bellies, joyous sounds.
But Solomon sensed intermingled dog and human sweat, fear of the unknown.
Where in this did he belong?  At the far end, sat a young woman on a rolling chair,
Arms out, brave smile upon her lips, shadowed eyes dripping wet with tears.
As Solomon landed, tail wagging, in her lap, he licked her salty face.
Nose buried in his coat she sobbed once more, but this time tears of joy. 

The next weeks were like a double rainbow after midnight thunder’s dawn.
It was Solomon who trained Denise, the one he now knew he was born to guard.
He was hers alone and she was his.  He became her eyes, her ears, four steady feet.
He slept by her bed, guided her to class, down streets, to parks, to stores.
Graduation day, they moved as one across the stage to be pronounced complete:
Woman and dog henceforth to travel the selfsame path.
An almost forgotten, but so familiar, scent tugged Solomon’s nose.
In row two sat his Freddy, taller now, but loving and so loved always in return,
Weeping with affection, pride, as his beloved puppy moved on in life to serve.

Years later, Solomon and Denise once more took center stage.
The audience stood as one to honor the dog whose stubborn wisdom
Told him when not to follow his companion’s bid but refuse
To lead her onto a flame-scorched floor that was no longer there.
She, too, was lauded for her courage to so trust this golden dog,
Who had restored her freedom and, yes, her very life.

Part II: Denise
The legs failed me first but left behind the real, true me, intact, alert, alive. 
I was less mobile, true, but still me, propelled by love, by engineering
To still savor the hills and hollows, risings, settings of life’s landscape.
The crushing blow came the morning when the last spark in my fading eyes
Defected to follow those faithless worthless legs.
They left their shells behind, but the vibrant life they’d lived my early years
Evaporated into dust.  I counted systems and their blessings:
Hearing? Yes! Touch, Yes! Voice? Yes!
Mind? Smell? Feelings? Oh, thank You, yes!
There was so much more of me remained than was no longer there.
It was left for me to build my future on the leavings.

First had come the chair, the ramps, now the cane, the Braile.
My smiling family bore me like a warrior on their arms.
Behind their brave facade my future seemed an earth-gnawed hole to nowhere.
I could negotiate a room, sense who was there and what’s for dinner.
I could type and “read” along with a bored mechanical voice. 
Twenty-first century science was on my side, but could I ever hope
To roll out on my own across the street, the country, around the world?
Yet…I had heard that dogs, very special dogs, could guide the blind.
I had never had a dog. Dogs smelled.  They messed.  They slobbered.
They barked. They craved attention.  Yet…

The school was two busses and a plane ride from my home.
Desperate, determined, I went alone, assured I would be met at journey’s end.
Along the way, voices, hearts, and hands of friendly faceless strangers
Materialized unbidden from the dark to speed me to my destination.
Once there, I was enfolded in the caring of those who knew the magic spells
That might yet free me from my spirit’s dismal cage.
I yearned for the dog for whom I’d prayed who would surely change my life.
Somewhere in that vast echoing space beyond my hall,
Solomon the Wise, matched and trained with care, was destined to be my dog.
I heard distant barking, tried to guess which voice bayed for me,
For I liked to think that Solomon, too, bewailed the gulf that parted us.
Neither would be whole until we were together.

We gathered in the lounge. The room steamed with anticipation,
Perspiration, the primitive scents of fear, alarm and flight.
The barking accelerated as the unseen dogs, too, sensed tension in the air.
Then they started coming. I heard shuffling feet, bright welcomes, laughter, and surprise.
But they didn’t come to me. Had I been forgotten, deemed unworthy?
Would they sentence this wonder dog to a lifetime
With a sightless woman who could not even run, play ball?
The room grew quiet.  Even the dogs stopped panting.
Then I heard new footsteps and a collective sigh billowed across the room.
It felt like my birthday as hands laid a wriggling, wagging, lapping ball of fur
Onto my waiting arms and lap.  Solomon at last!

Solomon the Wise, they call him?  Hah!  Solomon the bossy! 
Weren’t well-trained dogs expected to obey?
Now we went to class together, learned how and where to move,
Negotiated stores and gatherings, elevators, busses.
Sometimes he’d lead me.  More times, it seemed, he’d block my way.
I learned to listen with my hands to what he worked so hard to tell me:
Beware!  Be careful!  Go around.  Stairs! This way! Not yet. Let’s go.
At night, he’d sleep beside my bed. 
Mornings, our paired noses would find breakfast and adventures for the day. 
I was ready to trust that wherever we would go
Solomon the Wise would see me safe to there and safely home again.


IN SIGHTS ON SIGHT

Vision is that magical ability to activate
Two small, slippery spheres within our skull.
They can automatically adjust their shapes,
Adapt to miniscule shifts of light, distance, movement, angle.
Together they produce stereoscopic images of curves, distance, depth.
Then assemble, instantly transmit living data
About countless colors, shapes and forms, speed, porosity,
So the brain with lightning swiftness can analyze and act on we see. 
Eyes plus brain can record each subtle nuance on a face,
Help decide if its owner is friend or foe or lover – or all of the above.
These wondrous eyes update this input 24/7-365,
Each waking microsecond throughout our every day.

So, lucky us, we travel with these birthright-issued,
Pre-installed optic miracles within our heads.
We need not calculate, script, or program these delicate devices.
We need only open them and aim.
They make it so easy to move, to read, to choose a likely mate.
They help us create art, compose music, notate dance.
With them we can see dirt, stairs, the stars, and children’s faces.
All the beauty and mysteries of life are ours
At the flick of an eyelash.

Our eyes work every waking hour for us.
What do we do for them?
We rub them with filthy fingers.
We stare hours at flickering screens.
We fog them in tobacco smoke.
We insert unclean contact lenses.
We fry them in the blazing sun.
We poison them with toxic sprays.
We do 15-inch work on two-inch screens.
We dye their rims and lashes, wonder why they itch.
We ignore the call for safety glasses.
We laugh at the eyes-friendly diets.
We postpone checkups as long as we still see.
We ignore too long their silent cries for help.

No wonder eyes grow tired, sore, and cranky.
No wonder they feel scratchy, rasped, or dry.
No wonder some become infected, give up and power down.
Then, sometimes only then, we learn
How wonderful they were.

2nd Place Winner:  CorDeRosa Loire (aka Laura Fedeli)

CorDeRosa Loire is the first and only and beloved SL avatar of Laura Fedeli, an Italian teacher and researcher working in the field of instructional media and distance education. Currently she is a PhD candidate in e-learning, Knowledge Management and Psychology of Communication at the University of Macerata, Italy. Her award winning entry is entitled, "The Story of a Dream." For her efforts, CorDeRosa will receive $7,500 Lindens and the HKD award.

The Story of a Dream

It's cold.  I'm still sleeping, but feel the cool air penetrating my fur. I don't want to open my eyes.  My dreams are full of falling leaves, and I can run after them happily.

I don't know why I was raised to be like a human rather than to live my dog life, but this is what I am: a canine living like a human among the humans who live next to me and share everything with me every day.

It's not easy to be human.  Hopefully I will come back to my dog life when I get old, but if I ever come back to this (my dog life, I mean) I would like to continue living with my current human companion.  I’d like her to experience how funny it is to live with a dog – chewed slippers and confusion all around. Oh, that's life, and you will laugh at this my dear companion. Oh you will laugh as you have never laughed in the last years.

When I first saw her she was a beautiful young woman with blonde hair and a weird way of walking.  It seemed she was drunk, but when I got to know her better, I understood that was just her way, her lovely peculiar way of moving around. She smells.  She smells like a daisy.  Have you ever tried to sniff a little fragile, single daisy? It has no smell, just a soft nuance of warmness.

My companion likes to bend down close to my ears and speak words I can't quite understand.  The sounds are familiar, but the meaning is far from me.  It seems she knows I'm far from her, but she doesn't mind. That’s what I like most about her, she is so comfortable with herself!

It's hard to make her listen to me. She always wants to do things by herself, so I began to think she didn’t like me. I started to stop while we were walking in hopes she would realize I was irritated.  But she just kept walking, so I quickly caught up with so she could follow me.  Actually, I did everything I was taught to do to behave like a human, but it didn't seem to work with my companion, at least not at the beginning of our story.

We met a lot of people on our path.  Some of them were similar to her and which they were, my companion was always speaking to them with the same stubborn tone.

Early yesterday morning, I was trying to access my sweetest childhood dreams. In those dreams I used to run after leaves and play and run.  Happiness was all around men. Then suddenly I saw her.  She was there in my dreams from the past. She was young, much more younger than she is now, and beautiful.  As always, she was running with me after the leaves and laughing, aloud with me.

I woke up and she was bending over me, staring at me with her large liquid eyes and speaking.  Finally her words were no longer far from me. Both the sounds and the meanings were perfectly clear.

3rd Place: Louise Later (aka Louise Nicholson)

Louise could not be considered for an award because she is one of the organizers of Helen Keller Day.   In Second Life, Louise Later is the avatar of Louise Nicholson.  Louise came to Second Life to develop and teach classes that business managers are required to take by state and federal law. The classes would help managers create inclusive environments in the workplace.

She thought the highly adaptable world of Second Life would be the perfect place to demonstrate inclusion. After all, in SL, a big quarterback-sized CEO could have an avatar who is a little old black woman in a wheelchair.  So, Louise was all revved up and ready to go with her team of innovators at KEY Ethical Advisors and Moderne Communications.  However, she discovered she could not see well enough in SL.  Second Life itself needed to become more inclusive.  So she put the "business mangers" project on hold, while she and members of Virtual Helping Hands developed Max, the VHH Virtual Guidedog as assistive technology so that people who are visually or print-impaired can use SL effectively.
***
Louise is an award-winning writer, a California-credentialed preK through adult teacher and specialist. She won the “Golden Rule Award for the top volunteer in Southern California” for her work at LARRS—the Los Angeles Radio Reading Service. She also co-produces "Access Unlimited" on KPFK 90.7 FM, a radio show about issues involving disabilities that is streamed inworld at Wheelies and over the net at KPFK.org.
***
Louise Later shares her apartment at Wheelies with Max who has his own incredible one-prim doghouse by this year’s “Resident Choice Award-Winning Prim Sculpter,” Vickie Greenwood.  Louise Later is the Concept Developer and Team Coordinator of Max, the VHH Virtual Guidedog project.

LUCKY'S GREAT HOPES

I am a golden Labradoodle. I know I am small for my size and female - so I will probably have a small woman as my teammate. I so hope that I do well by the Dog Code! I know that I have had excellent training Barbara Vogel at Guidedogs of America, a trainer with years of experience.

But I have always known by the scent around me of SO many dogs around me - dogs who were no longer here - that this is not my "real" pack and that someday I would migrate as all dogs do to find a pack to stay with.

Today is the day! Let's get the harness, Barabra. I am ready for adventure.

So, NOW , I am "Lucky." I am the third guidedog for my teammate, Louise Later - and she loves dogs. Wow, she is good with dogs and very consistant.

I love her, and I can tell she loves me.

Outside we go, for a good long walk!  I was started. My first jaunt out, and this place has coyotes. I can smell them. I am scared of coyotes. They have been in these streets and now are hiding up in the hills. I have to protect my human, but, boy, I hope she knows how to protect me!

My first night HOME. And tonight, as i do my ritural 3 circles and recite the Dog Code, I finally have my human's name to complete to the Dog Code:

O Great Dog,
help me stay loyal
help me stay kind
help me stay with my human, Louise
I join with you in guarding my pack.

P.S. And they also have huge hawks here. I am glad I did not live here as a puppy. I could have been eaten! Great Dog, protect me from nightnares.

P.P.S. She gave me bacon. I love bacon. I am going to dream about that instead.

This morning, we are going out to meet people,

I like living with Louise. She can still see some, and uses the hand signals that I have learned.

Thank the Great Dog that I am smart - this is challenging!

Let's get that harness on, Louise!

Oh, okay! I am going to take Louise shopping!

So, here we are at Apple May shoppe.

BUT

[10:33]  Guidedog 3.6: goto  7, 189, 35
[10:33]  Xenobia Foxclaw: Hello, Louise
[10:33]  Louise Later: Hi, Xenobia
[10:34]  Xenobia Foxclaw: I fear this outfit may be too dark for you
[10:34]  Louise Later: I wanted to get the Michael Jackson outfit
[10:34]  Xenobia Foxclaw: It's right behind you
[10:34]  Louise Later: Is it trans?
[10:34]  Xenobia Foxclaw: I'm wearing parts of it
[10:34]  Xenobia Foxclaw: let me look
[10:34]  Louise Later: I was thinking of getting it for Jolie
[10:34]  Xenobia Foxclaw: no, I'm sorry, it can't be transferred

So much for shopping! We got nothing!

Let's try exploring!

[11:19]  Maryrose Mariani: hello Louise
[11:19]  Louise Later: hello maryrose
[11:19]  Louise Later: I am doing Jenaia's Vision Quest
[11:20]  Clint Peccable is Online
[11:20]  Maryrose Mariani: I see. I 'm not familar with that
[11:20]  Bmoe Titanium is Online
[11:20]  Louise Later: there should be a sign that the dog takes me to
[11:20]  Maryrose Mariani: good luck
[11:21]  Louise Later: ty! have a good day!
[11:21]  Maryrose Mariani: you too

Hmm. That was not what I expected. These other humans don't know as much as I'd like. Sigh. Maybe we should go somewhere else!

I know, let's try teleporting to the great beyond with LM 5 .

Don't worry, Louise, I'll help you do something yet! ( I sure hope so! Who knew that being a guidedog is filled with so much failture. I never did anything wrong at Barbara's. And I know all the rules at Louise's. But out here? Nothing goes right the first time.)

* * *

Ah, good news at last! I was able to do something really well. We just sailed from /2 Findvisionquest1 to the next and the next and the next.

Louise got to check out the notecard and I got to sniff the flowers.

I have learned it takes a LOT of patience to be a good guidedog. The most important thing is not to give up!  

P.S. She gave me bacon and called me a good dog when we got home. Ah, Life is so good.

Other memorable events that helped mark this memorable day included:

A virtual building contest, focusing on the accessibility of buildings in Second Life
A presentation by the grand niece of Helen Keller
A photo contest
A scripting contest
And more ...

According to the event organizers, Helen Keller Day was, "...a day dedicated to raising our level of awareness for our fellow Second Life Residents who cope with disabilities. At some time in our lives, we've all felt what it feels like not to be able to participate... not to be included. Knowing how to include someone with a disability, and make them feel welcome, is an important social skill, and a small but significant kindness that we can all benefit from and feel good about."

In support of Helen Keller Day and the increasing number of visually impaired individuals using virtual worlds, Alliance Library System and Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center also recently announced the opening of “Second Sight,” a new island and initiative in the Info Island Archipelago.  “Second Sight will have resources and events for the visually impaired and their families on vision loss, healthy eye care, and other issues related to vision,” stated Kitty Pope, ALS Executive Director.  “There are some very innovative and exciting initiatives and amazing community development happening in virtual worlds for people with disabilities.  In these economically challenging times, this is just the type of innovation that will meet the needs of an expanding community of visually impaired in the social networking environment of Second Life.”

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