How does SL support deaf people ?

[drakeos99]

What if they want to become a DJ if they have hearing impairment aka can hear via hearing aids and cant talk ?

[Dillon Levenque]

Your first stop should be at Virtual Ability. I'm not inworld but here's a link to their wiki page; that will show you how to get there. You can probably just send an IM to Treasure Ballinger and find out what you need there as well.

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Virtual_Ability

[Tari Landar]

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drakeos99 wrote:

What if they want to become a DJ if they have hearing impairment aka can hear via hearing aids and cant talk ?

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Well, technically speaking, Sl doesn't have to "support" any Dj, or anyone that wants to be one.

That said, people who are Deaf can be DJs, if they would like to be. Not all clubs require that you are able to talk. Some do, and while it is yes ideal for most, it is not an "all-over-sl" requirement or something.

In fact, for some clubs I have been to, I wish the DJ would shut up for more than a few minutes at a time, so I can enjoy the music too. But that's really neither here nor there.

If it helps any, I am legally blind, and while sl in and of itself does not have to support me, or anyone else for that matter, there are plenty of ways I can continue to enjoy sl, just like everyone else does...disability be damned. The tools I can utilize to enjoy my sl the same way everyone else does, are the same tools that are currently enabling me to get a degree too. I just have to know how to use them.  The same way someone who is Deaf will have to find a club willing to hire them as a DJ who does not necessarily speak(though there are ways one can speak, without using one's own voice, too..I didn't think you were talking about such things)

[Parrish Ashbourne]

For the DJing part of playing music that would be more about the DJ software not SL directly, most DJ softwate should have visual cues, for communicating with people in SL, there's  always chat and IMs.  If you want to be heard by the audience as if your speaking then using gestures could be an option to play back sound samples of some one else talking for you, or some form of text to speach.  There's likely a way to do text to speach live too I've never looked in to that.

[Tari Landar]

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Parrish Ashbourne wrote:

For the DJing part of playing music that would be more about the DJ software not SL directly, most DJ softwate should have visual cues, for communicating with people in SL, there's  always chat and IMs.  If you want to be heard by the audience as if your speaking then using gestures could be an option to play back sound samples of some one else talking for you.

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Text to speech over a mic(through the software, not through sl) would serve this purpose much better than gestures. In fact, I would tell people to avoid using gestures. Not only do they annoy people, but not everyone even has them turned on(well the sound for them). Of course someone could just as easily not have the music turned on at a venue, but you are more likely to run into people who keep gesture sound off in a venue than you are people who keep the music stream off.

[Parrish Ashbourne]

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Tari Landar wrote:

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Parrish Ashbourne wrote:

For the DJing part of playing music that would be more about the DJ software not SL directly, most DJ softwate should have visual cues, for communicating with people in SL, there's  always chat and IMs.  If you want to be heard by the audience as if your speaking then using gestures could be an option to play back sound samples of some one else talking for you.

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Text to speech over a mic(through the software, not through sl) would serve this purpose much better than gestures. In fact, I would tell people to avoid using gestures. Not only do they annoy people, but not everyone even has them turned on(well the sound for them). Of course someone could just as easily not have the music turned on at a venue, but you are more likely to run into people who keep gesture sound off in a venue than you are people who keep the music stream off.

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The problem with gestures, is that people over use the same generic ones over and over,  it's really an extremely power full tool for how simple it is to use, that's rarely gets used to it's full potential.  the whole idea of a caned sound bit could all so just be done out side of SL and cued like a song, and would then be head if some one has gestures sounds turned off.  but for ether to work well I'm suggest having several veration of each type of saying and only use one of each type per night or shift, and all of them custom not some thing people have heard some place else.

I agree that text to speech would be the best,  to do good gestures or sound bits would take a lot of work to keep it fresh, and would never be good for live responses.  but there's still uses for DJs for gesture that woulden't involve sound, like tringering some crazy animation when some one givers you a good tip.

[Treasure Ballinger]

Hello;

Thanks for the shout out (think that was Dillon?) Anyway, while Virtual Ability does offer all kinds of peer support and resources for all kinds of disability related issues, as far as I know, we don't 'teach' people how to be DJ's, no matter their RL disability.  We have lots of DJ's that are Virtual Ability group members.  As far as I know, we have no D/deaf DJ's.  We do have DJ's that specifically support our sim's activities (Cape Able, catering to D/deaf and others......) by posting the lyrics to the songs they're playing in local chat.  I am the sim manager for that particular sim (Yes, I am deaf) and we have an art gallery that hosts art created by artists with disabilities in RL.  I change that up pretty much quarterly.  When those exhibits open, we do a grand opening celebration dance, and for that, I use the various DJ's from Virtual Ability. 

I pretty much am aware of most of the D/deaf groups around SL, and have ability (kindly granted by group owners) to post notices in most of them;   There are a lot of D/deaf groups, but far as I know, Cape Able is still the only 'place' that is specific to people with hearing loss.

If it were me, and I wanted to be a DJ I'd just learn how to do it and put my name out there.  If you hear well enough to manage that, then you probably don't need special support of any kind, and as someone else said, SL doesn't owe anyone any type of support of that nature.  You come to SL, you learn what you like to do and you do it.  I think the wording of your thread here is off kilter a bit, and I'm not sure who you want to DJ for; whether you're talking about D/deaf events or others.  Either way, the fact that you'll be a D/deaf DJ is kind of a non issue if you can handle the criteria to be a DJ period.   I do things all day long without announcing that I'm deaf.  Some know it, some don't, although I"m very open about it, in RL and SL.   If your hearing loss isn't an issue for you, enough so that you can be a DJ, then, just do it.  If you find it's too much for you to handle, then find something else to do that's more compatible with your personal issues......    Good luck to you, as you move forward, you're welcome to join Virtual Ability and attend our parties and events, and see how we roll, as people with RL disabilities functioning in SL.

Edit to add:  Oh, the other issue, there is software.....Dragon Speaking Naturally, JAWS, different things, that convert voice to text and text to voice and such, but I didn't really gather that was your issue, except if you'd be taking requests or something.  You could always request text.  DJ's at our events usually are mostly texting anyway, except for announcing songs and such, or thanking people for tips. 

[drakeos99]

Wow so much support <3 thanks