Alt-Text as Poetry
Dec. 18th, 2020 07:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kestrellYesterday I was browsing the MIT IAP schedule of courses, I found this
Alt-Text as Poetry Workshop
Bojana Coklyat and Shannon Finnegan will lead a group work session to dig into our collective backlog of alt-text writing for websites or social media. We can share what were working on, ask questions, and learn from each other.
If you are brand new to writing alt-text, we recommend reading Section 2 of Bojana and Shannon's workbook (available on their website https://alt-text-as-poetry.net/ ).
Alt-text is an essential part of web accessibility, making visual content accessible through short textual descriptions for blind and low-vision people who use screen reading software to access digital content. Alt-text is often overlooked altogether or understood through the lens of compliance, as an unwelcome burden to be met with minimum effort.
How can we instead approach alt-text thoughtfully and creatively, while still prioritizing alt-text as an accessibility practice?
In this workshop, led by Bojana Coklyat and Shannon Finnegan, we will reframe alt-text as a type of poetry and practice writing it together. We will look at examples of poetic and creative approaches to alt-text, then do several writing exercises designed to focus on issues that often come up in alt-text, including attention to language and word economy, alt-text as translation, structuring and prioritizing, subjectivity, identity, and representation.
You can find more information on what alt-text is, and how we can practice it as poetry, on Bojana and Shannon's website
https://alt-text-as-poetry.net/
Kes: note that this project is a collaboration between artists Bojana Coklyat and Shannon Finnegan, supported by Eyebeam and the Disability Visibility Project.
“
Here is an online recording of one of their workshops:
Alt-text as Poetry” workshop (ASL accessible) on Vimeo
https://vimeo.com/419009970
Lastly, here is a great interview which describes some of their art installations which address the the inaccessibility of art and museum space.
Accessibility in Inaccessible Spaces: An Interview with Shannon Finnegan
by Emily McDermott // Nov. 10, 2020
Berlin Art ONLINE MAGAZINE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
http://www.berlinartlink.com/2020/11/10/accessibility-interview-shannon-finnegan/
Excerpt:
Most recently, the artist began addressing accessibility in digital space through a series of creative workshops about alt-text (text entered into the backend of websites or on social media platforms to enable screen-readers to access visually-driven content) created in collaboration with artist, activist and scholar Bojana Coklyat. To a disabled audience, some of Finnegan’s subject matter might seem like old news, but they see their work as a building block within a much larger ecosystem. Their work, they say, “is interdependent with work by many other disabled artists and thinkers. It is part of a specific network and lineage.” In this interview, Finnegan speaks about this ecosystem, their disability-centering practice and how artists and institutions can--and should--change the ways they think about accessibility.
Alt-Text as Poetry Workshop
Bojana Coklyat and Shannon Finnegan will lead a group work session to dig into our collective backlog of alt-text writing for websites or social media. We can share what were working on, ask questions, and learn from each other.
If you are brand new to writing alt-text, we recommend reading Section 2 of Bojana and Shannon's workbook (available on their website https://alt-text-as-poetry.net/ ).
Alt-text is an essential part of web accessibility, making visual content accessible through short textual descriptions for blind and low-vision people who use screen reading software to access digital content. Alt-text is often overlooked altogether or understood through the lens of compliance, as an unwelcome burden to be met with minimum effort.
How can we instead approach alt-text thoughtfully and creatively, while still prioritizing alt-text as an accessibility practice?
In this workshop, led by Bojana Coklyat and Shannon Finnegan, we will reframe alt-text as a type of poetry and practice writing it together. We will look at examples of poetic and creative approaches to alt-text, then do several writing exercises designed to focus on issues that often come up in alt-text, including attention to language and word economy, alt-text as translation, structuring and prioritizing, subjectivity, identity, and representation.
You can find more information on what alt-text is, and how we can practice it as poetry, on Bojana and Shannon's website
https://alt-text-as-poetry.net/
Kes: note that this project is a collaboration between artists Bojana Coklyat and Shannon Finnegan, supported by Eyebeam and the Disability Visibility Project.
“
Here is an online recording of one of their workshops:
Alt-text as Poetry” workshop (ASL accessible) on Vimeo
https://vimeo.com/419009970
Lastly, here is a great interview which describes some of their art installations which address the the inaccessibility of art and museum space.
Accessibility in Inaccessible Spaces: An Interview with Shannon Finnegan
by Emily McDermott // Nov. 10, 2020
Berlin Art ONLINE MAGAZINE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
http://www.berlinartlink.com/2020/11/10/accessibility-interview-shannon-finnegan/
Excerpt:
Most recently, the artist began addressing accessibility in digital space through a series of creative workshops about alt-text (text entered into the backend of websites or on social media platforms to enable screen-readers to access visually-driven content) created in collaboration with artist, activist and scholar Bojana Coklyat. To a disabled audience, some of Finnegan’s subject matter might seem like old news, but they see their work as a building block within a much larger ecosystem. Their work, they say, “is interdependent with work by many other disabled artists and thinkers. It is part of a specific network and lineage.” In this interview, Finnegan speaks about this ecosystem, their disability-centering practice and how artists and institutions can--and should--change the ways they think about accessibility.
no subject
Date: 2020-12-19 06:52 pm (UTC)Coolio!
I have an impertinent question: what's the anti-stairs club?
no subject
Date: 2020-12-19 07:23 pm (UTC)The artist created the Anti-Stairs Club Lounge on the ground floor, with furniture, snacks, everything, and the only pre-requisite to enter was that visitors had to sign a form that agreed that they would not use any stairs.
I love this: it's art, disability activism, and trickster thinking all at the same time, while really putting the "in" in "inclusive."
So now I've adopted the phrase. If I start a virtual community, I think I will use that title.
no subject
Date: 2020-12-19 08:25 pm (UTC)Yesssssss!