SECOND ABILITY - Simon Walsh, founder of Wheelies Nightclub, announced Sunday that he was resigning his role as overall manager of Wheelies Nightclub. Wheelies Nightclub has been an important fixture in Second Life for many, one that Mr. Walsh has worked tirelessly to build.

In 2006, when Walsh first entered Second Life, there wasn’t a lot of focus on accessibility issues and he wanted to create a space where people could safely explore such issues in Second Life. Over the years, Wheelies Nightclub has grown from a floor of a building where five or six people could dance to full sim.

 In the first month of operation, the club, which featured live music as well as DJs, carefully orchestrated by an operations manager and a site manager, attracted over five hundred visitors. The club caught the attention of the media, from blogs and YouTube videos to television news stories in the United Kingdom, Canada and Russia.

Since then, Mr. Walsh has had many opportunities to speak about accessibility issues online. However, these opportunities, as well as other personal issues requires Walsh to reallocate his time away from the management of Wheelies.

Wheelies is much more than just a nightclub with an accessibility theme. It has grown into an important community in Second Life. Members of the community explored ways to keep the community together. Polgara Paine has agreed to become Director of Wheelies.

Ms. Paine has been active in Second Life since May 2005. She is a professor of special education at the School of Intervention Services at Bowling Green State University. During the transition, Wheelies will continue at a temporary location. Moving forward, Ms. Paine intends to establish a board of directors and to raise funds to make Wheelies sustainable on a long-term basis. The first fundraising event is scheduled to take place on March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day as part of a grand opening of their new space.

Mr. Walsh’s vision of virtual worlds that are more accessible to people with all levels of ability continues to evolve, and he will remain an important speaker on these topics.

Wheelies, the Nightclub, will continue to progress as the new management makes its imprint, new spaces are built and new forms of funding are sought. Most importantly, the community of Wheelies, people interested in the issues of accessibility is bound to continue to grow as everyone learns from Mr. Walsh, Ms. Paine, and the whole communities’ experiences.