Accessibility for discussions at D/s academy (by Julala)

A number of times I have been asked by people I know in real life how they can listen in to our discussions if they don't have a computer fast enough to run Secondlife.  Also, on occasion we've been asked about accessibility for those with hearing or sight impairments attending the discussions.

Firstly, for those who think their computer isn't fast enough to run Secondlife - some solutions:

1.  Whether you use the Secondlife official viewer or a third party viewer there are a number of things that you can do to reduce the amount of memory and graphics requirements (even before logging in), for example:

Choose preferences from the top menu on the viewer before logging in and depending on your viewer choice there are a number of things you can change immediately to reduce memory and cpu usage.

• Reduce Graphics to "low".
• Reduce your draw distance.
• Turn off all shaders.
• Make Terrain detail "low"
• Reduce LOD (Level of Detail)
• Turn off Anistropic filtering
• Slide maximum bandwidth to between 500-1000kbps depending on your Internet connection speed.

For a full set of ways to improve viewer performance visit the SL wiki here: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/How-to-improve-Viewer-performance/ta-p/1316923

 2.  On the third party view list there are a number of "thin clients" available - these are slimmed down and are a good alternative for those with slower or older computers.  Many thin client viewers are text-based only, which is fine if the discussion is text only - but our discussions at D/s academy are often voice/text mixed.  However, thankfully there is a thin client with voice capabilities *yeay*.  (please note that you need "voice capabilities" even if you only want to listen)

Radegast is a non-graphical thin client with voice capabilities so you could use this viewer to access and fully engage in one of our (or other) discussions in Secondlife even on the slowest computer.

Make sure you check "install voice pack" from the install menu (its is unchecked by default) if you want to install voice.

You will, of course, need to have created a Secondlife avatar/account at Secondlife.com before you can login.

If you've never been to D/s academy before....how will you find us?  OK.  Once you are logged in to Radegast with your avatar, first search for D/s academy in the places tab of the search tool.  D/s academy is probably the third one in the list - you're looking for "Live, love, lust" etc.  TP there first - the reason you should do this is that when you first login to SL you are likely to arrive at a PG info hub and pasting the slurl of an adult sim into local chat is likely to get you a kick in the ass. 

Once you have teleported to "Respect" sim where the D/s academy lives you can paste the following slurl into the local chat: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Respect/232/169/22 and then click on it in the chat transcript and select Teleport.  This will take you directly to the Temple of Discussion where the discussions generally take place. 

Now - once you've arrived at the Temple of Discussion - you don't want to stand like a dufus at the landing point - especially if more than one use these instructions because you'll all be standing on top of one another like a pile of newbs on a rainy night!  No, no - come have a seat and join us properly: 

Choose the "Objects" tab in Radegast.  Look through the objects that are close to you and look for an objects called "sofa-lay-m-r" or "Propped Sit-M-3" or "z-slouch-1" or such like - these are towels to sit on.  Select one from your list of objects and then choose "Sit on".  Now - if someone is already sat there, chances are you wont be able to sit on it...just try another.   

Ensure that "enable Voice" is checked in the "Voice" tab of Radegast or you will hear nothing.
If you're going to speak, please consider using a headset as this reduces feedback and background noise.  If your mic is left open or is sending an awful racket out to the room you may end up getting ejected.  Don't take it personally - we just don't want our ears to explode.  Just come back and try again. 

You could always do a test run beforehand at Voice Echo Canyon: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Voice%20Echo%20Canyon/131/126/24 to make sure your voice is working well.

Now - for those that might have hearing or sight impairments - you might be interested to know that Radegast also has text to speech capabilities and speech to text capabilities.  Now - I haven't tried these out so I can't comment on their effectiveness - if you would like to give it a go - please do report back and let us know how it goes!

If other sims would like to adapt this post for their own events - please do - but please link back to this post - cos that's the nice thing to do ;o)