Milton Broome's Virtual Psychology Blog: Autism Advocacy in the Virtual Online World

10 May 2009

Autism Advocacy in the Virtual Online World

Here's a news article featuring Amanda Baggs (Blog) in the virtual world Second Life. Amanda is an advocate for Autism and has profound Autistic characteristics. The video features her work in virtual worlds and her views on mental health discrimination.

Her group in Second Life is called 'Autistic Liberation Front'. The group title may sound a bit radical but their site is very accessible. I'd recommend checking it out if you're interested. Her most popular video on YouTube gained a lot of attention from the press and raised awareness of some of the classic symptoms of Autism as well as the discrepancy between Autistic communication and verbal language.

1 comments:

Christine SteermanNov 15, 2009 08:31 PM
I am a newcomer to second life. I have been a clinical psychologist for nearly thirty years. I work with children and families primarily and have a lot of experience with autism, aspergers ets along with other developmental differences.
Recently I started going through SL for the express purpose of discovering how I can use virtual reality to work with my clients. The idea of working on social cues, gestures reciprocity etc
I don't know if I can be of help, but I am willing
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This is the personal blog of Milton Broome, the digital avatar of University of Derby Lecturer in Psychology Simon Bignell. The avatar is a proxy for Psychology teaching and research in 3D multi-user virtual environments.

I teach a range of Psychology modules both to campus-based and distance learners. These include my final-year course 'Autism, Asperger's and ADHD' and a range of modules across Developmental and Cognitive Psychology.

The Out Campaign: Scarlet Letter of Atheism

I am currently project leading JISC and HEA-funded projects that are evaluating teaching and research in Second Life. I would be pleased to talk with you if you share these interests. Please feel free to comment, subscribe, forward or quote extracts from this blog. I also welcome relevant guest articles.

Contact: Simon Bignell (SL Avatar: Milton Broome) Lecturer in Psychology, Centre for Psychological Research, University of Derby, UK. Email: s.bignell@derby.ac.uk This is a personal blog and all views expressed here are the opinion of the individual authors at the time of publication and not those of any academic institution.