Virtual Ability Inc., will be hosting its annual International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference (IDRAC) on Friday, November 10th 2023 at the Sojourner Auditorium on Virtual Ability Island.
A professional conference held in-world in Second Life that is to the public, IDRAC features an international line-up of guest speakers each year, with individual sessions lasting between 30 and 90 minutes, and may include opportunities for Q&A. For those who cannot make the in-world venue, it is live streamed via the Virtual Ability You Tube channel.
The theme of the conference this year is Do, Create, Live, and sessions are as follows (all times SLT):
| 07:00 | Joseph English (QuadRebuild) will talk about how setting up QuadRebuild to help others changed his new life as a quadriplegic. |
| 07:30 | Erin Willis and Daniel Garza (University of Colorado, Boulder, Lilmesican Productions, Inc) will explain their research on patient influencers who do direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical marketing. |
| 08:30 | Emily Wright (It’ll Be Alwright), who survived multiple concussions, explains how she rebalanced her mind |
| 09:30 | Downs Syndrome sufferer John Cronin and his father Mark describe running John’s business, John’s Crazy Socks. |
| 10:30 | Panel discussion: what “Do, Create, Live” means in education. |
| 11:00 | 30-minutes break. |
| 11:30 | Keri Gray (Keri Gray Consulting Group) discusses the National Alliance of Melanin Disabled Advocates (the NAMED Advocates). |
| Noon | Panel discussion: what “Do, Create, Live” means in the arts. |
| 12:30 | Judy Mittag explains how advocates got federal legislation passed to require insurance coverage for lymphedema supplies |
| 13:30 | Heather Markham (Making Waves for Good) shares how we can each choose a title for our own stories |
| 14:30 | End of sessions |
You can learn more about the speakers via Virtual Ability’s IDARC 2023 web page.
Related Links
- Conference SLurl (Virtual Ability Island, rated: General)
- Virtual Ability Inc website
- 2023 IDRAC conference schedule
My Apologies to Gentle Heron and the VI team for the tardiness in getting this article published; life has me somewhat at sixes and sevens at the moment.
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