In this article I explore the relationship between digital place and disability through an ethnographic study of disability experience in the virtual world Second Life. I discuss how forms of landscape and interface shape disability experience, how building relates to “being-inworld” in digital place, and how proximity and collaboration relate to disability embodiment in a virtual context. “Participant building” on a virtual island created for this research, “Ethnographia,” complements participant observation and other methods to investigate these questions of digital place. Through these lines of analysis, I develop a notion of “digital topography” to illuminate the implications of digital place for disability and human experience more generally. This allows for differentiating digital places from digital media and thus forging conceptual frameworks that reflect how the internet is not a unitary entity. It also allows for considering digital emplacement as related to, but distinct from, digital embodiment. This helps draw attention to questions of digital placemaking alongside the better-known phenomena of avatars. Avatars are important, but it is crucial to highlight the virtual geographies without which the emplacement of those avatars would be impossible. These materials speak to broad questions regarding embodiment, ability, the digital, and the real.

中文翻译：

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地方能力

在本文中，我通过对虚拟世界“第二人生”中的残疾体验进行人种学研究，探讨数字场所与残疾之间的关系。我讨论了景观和界面的形式如何塑造残疾体验，建筑如何与数字场所中的“身临其境”相关，以及接近度和协作如何与虚拟环境中的残疾体现相关。在为这项研究创建的虚拟岛屿上的“参与者建筑”，“民族志”，补充了参与者观察和其他方法来调查数字地方的这些问题。通过这些分析，我提出了“数字地形”的概念，以更广泛地阐明数字场所对残疾和人类体验的影响。这允许将数字场所与数字媒体区分开来，从而形成反映互联网如何不是单一实体的概念框架。它还允许将数字部署视为与数字实施方式相关但又不同的数字实施方式。这有助于引起人们对数字场所营造问题以及更为人所知的化身现象的关注。化身很重要，但突出虚拟地理区域至关重要，否则就不可能放置这些化身。这些材料涉及关于体现、能力、数字和真实的广泛问题。这有助于引起人们对数字场所营造问题以及更为人所知的化身现象的关注。化身很重要，但突出虚拟地理区域至关重要，否则就不可能放置这些化身。这些材料涉及关于体现、能力、数字和真实的广泛问题。这有助于引起人们对数字场所营造问题以及更为人所知的化身现象的关注。化身很重要，但突出虚拟地理区域至关重要，否则就不可能放置这些化身。这些材料涉及关于体现、能力、数字和真实的广泛问题。