Can Virtual Worlds Provide Support to Military Amputees?

Amputee Virtual Environment Support Space to Research and Establish Best
Practices
DENVER--(Business Wire)--
Virtual worlds can provide military amputees with an opportunity to enhance
their overall quality of life, expedite their reintegration into society, and
improve their physical and mental wellness. ADL Company Inc. (ADL) and Virtual
Ability, Inc. (VAI) announced today the start of a project to establish best
practices and protocols for the provision of on-line peer-to-peer support
services to this community, with funding from the Telemedicine and Advanced
Technology Research Center (TATRC) of the US Army Medical Research and Materiel
Command (USAMRMC).

"For individuals with disabilities, virtual worlds are a powerful way to connect
with others, to access peer support, and to participate in activities that might
not otherwise be possible," said Alice Krueger, President of Virtual Ability,
Inc., a not-for-profit corporation. "This project will establish the best way to
adopt this technology for the unique needs of the military amputee community."

The Amputee Virtual Environment Support Space (AVESS) project will research the
peer support needs of the military amputee community and establish protocols and
prototypes for addressing those needs in a virtual environment. AVESS will be
developed by ADL and VAI, who are partners in the project.

"We have successfully used virtual world technology in a number of areas,
including as part of a long-standing project with the US Government (Joint
Medical Executive Skills Institute) through which we provide leadership training
to healthcare professionals in the Tri Services," said Doug Thompson of ADL.
"This project will further extend the use and understanding of virtual worlds
and establish global best practices. VAI is an invaluable partner on this
project: they have shown through example and experience how powerful virtual
worlds can be in their ability to support people with all kinds of disabilities
- physical, mental, emotional, and sensory."

Finding a Sense of Community and Support

Recent US military casualty figures for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation
Enduring Freedom indicate that between September 2001 and mid-January 2009 over
a thousand amputation injuries occurred. Of the 935 amputations considered
major, one in five wounded warriors lost more than one limb. While the
rehabilitation goal is for the soldier to return to active duty, many
reintegrate into their civilian communities. In either case, military
amputations are often accompanied by additional wounds, depression, fear,
phantom limb pain, and post traumatic stress disorder.

Spouses and family members often become the caregivers of military amputees
after they are released from military hospitals and rehabilitation programs.
Family support members have their own grieving process to go through related to
the amputation and to the change to family life.

Peer support groups help recent amputees gain the experience and confidence and
practice the skills necessary to proceed with their rehabilitation. Support
groups can also assist family members and spouses with their caregiving issues
and concerns.

"Individuals come into virtual environments as a way to connect with others who
have disabilities," said Krueger, whose group has developed an award-winning
support environment in Second Life® for individuals with disabilities. "What
they discover is that you don`t just find a community, you find a place where
you can express yourself and feel like you have a shared space. It`s powerful.
Virtual worlds offer an immediacy and a sense of presence that a Web site can`t
offer. Amputees have been shown to respond positively to viewing themselves as
an avatar in a three-dimensional environment."

"Our mandate is to explore new technology and how it can support service
personnel. This is an exciting project for TATRC because it will let us define
what we see as a potentially effective way to provide another form of support to
military amputees," said Ashley Fisher, Program Manager at TATRC.

Linden Lab Provides Technology

The AVESS team selected a stand-alone virtual world solution provided by Linden
Lab as the test platform for the research into best practices. Based on the same
technology that runs the Second Life® virtual world, the stand-alone application
allows the AVESS team to prototype a solution that is specifically tailored to
the needs of military amputees and their families, and that has added features
for security and user registration and management.

"We`ve been working with Linden Lab technology to create applications and
environments for commercial, military and educational clients," said Doug
Thompson. "With a proven virtual world platform that is populated by hundreds of
organizations and thousands of users, it was an ideal fit for this project."

About ADL Company, Inc.

ADL Company, Inc. is a leading provider of distance education and virtual world
environments focusing on health, leadership and patient support. ADL clients
include the Joint Medical Executive Skills Institute, hospitals, HMOs, and
industry. An operating division of ADL owns and operates Metanomics, a weekly
broadcast on the serious uses of virtual worlds filmed in Second Life® and
broadcast to the Web.

About Virtual Ability, Inc.

Virtual Ability, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation based in Denver,
Colorado, dedicated to enabling people with a wide range of disabilities by
providing a supporting environment for them to enter and thrive in on-line
virtual worlds like Second Life®.

For more information on Virtual Ability, Inc., including the benefits of virtual
reality for people with disabilities, please see www.VirtualAbility.org.

About the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center

The Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) is the US Army
Medical Research and Materiel Command`s (USAMRMC) corporate or central
laboratory for advanced technology research. Its diverse assortment of unique
collaborative relationships with government, academia and industry comprise a
workforce that focuses on world-class integrated research and development for
the Department of Defense. TATRC`s research programs consist of seven portfolios
and a new initiatives and basic science program for addressing the ever-changing
world of medical requirements both on the battlefield and in hospitals of the
future.

www.tatrc.org

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available:
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6088622&lang=en

ADL Inc.
Doug Thompson, President
Cell: 416/561-9067
Office: 416/413-7910
doug@adlcompany.com
or
Virtual Ability Inc.
Alice Krueger, President
Office: 303/400-3306
akrueger@VirtualAbility.org

Copyright Business Wire 2009