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Virtual reality could become... reality

• By Paul Crichton
• 11 Sep 07, 02:17 PM

Dr Paul Twomey, CEO of ICANN, predicted that , at the recent .

Twomey cited the example of The Sims Online, an, er, online version of the popular computer game, as being the kind of interface companies will use for retail, and business to business services.

Paul Twomey knows his stuff. As well as being CEO of , the organisation responsible for creating the internet’s system of unique identifiers and domain names (like .co.uk) that allows us to get around the web, is studded with impressive public and private positions.

It isn’t hard to see where Twomey is coming from. already has an economy for virtual and real world products and services. New alternative realities are appearing all the time on the web, and Disney’s purchase of , a virtual world for children, for US $700 million illustrates their potential.

I must confess that I just can’t see this as being the future to the extent that Twomey does. Sure, there is a place and an audience for virtual worlds. But what I love about my favourite ecommerce websites is that I can, for example buy a book with the speed and ease of an SAS strike force.

If I have to go to a virtual bookstore, wander along the aisles to find my book, and then queue to chat to an avatar representing the bookseller before buying what I want, then hell, I might as well go to the shops and do it in person.

I know it’s a long shot, but if, if I’m wrong about this, and Twomey’s vision of the future comes to reality, then it is incumbent upon these companies to make a better job of making virtual worlds accessible than they have done to date.

We’ve looked at, and been critical of the accessibility provided by Second Life a number of times. It doesn’t work at all with the screen reader software used by visually impaired people, and offers only limited support via the keyboard for those that have trouble using a mouse. I imagine this is typical of virtual world websites – but if anyone has found an accessible one, then I really would love to hear about it.

These websites today are largely recreational. If they are going to become the model for commerce, then the designers have to make a better fist of making them inclusive – as daunting as that task is. Otherwise, many of the advances in accessibility that we’ve seen on the web, enabling people to buy CDs and the like, will be lost.

If this is the future, access could be dead. Be very afraid ...

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