This week, Linden Lab awarded two projects with the the first edition of Linden Prize, to recognize their achievements in making Second Life more practical for the real world (you can see a strong message here, can't you?).

One of them, Virtual Ability (just for note, the second one was Studio Wikitecture), is a non profit corporation from Colorado, having for mission to "enable people with a wide range of disabilities by providing a supporting environment for them to enter and thrive in online virtual worlds" (mainly Second Life, at least for now).

Through a variety of activities, concentrated around Virtual Ability island in Second Life which provides the home for new resident orientation and training, the organization tends to teach disabled people the basic virtual world skills of movement, communication, inventory, orienting and appearance. These activities range from Cape Able, conceived for deaf and hard of hearing people, through Virtual Ability Research Group, promoting insertion of disabled people into virtual world research activities, to The Heron Sanctuary, which provides a community for the disabled once they have established their presence in the virtual world.

Problems of the disabled in virtual reality are no longer virtual, and so should shift the efforts to face them. The $10,000 that come with the Linden Prize to Virtual Ability can be a good practical step forward.