__NOPUBLISH__

Welcome to a splinter etherpad sheet!
This pad is only reachable locally within the range of the shared portable server. 

To prevent this pad to appear in the 'etherdump' list of pads, you can add the word __NOPUBLISH__ anywhere in the text.

This pad installation includes a system to mark pads to include specific keywords, 'snowpoles'. 
When ++SNOWPOLES++ are used, pads will be tagged with a certain keyword, for future re-editing or publishing. Worksession Drempel Drempel Drempel
Tuesday 14 - 03 - 2024 - Day 3

++resources-to-think-on-and-with-access++ 

Hello everybody! :)


passwords:
    wifi: kaaistudios-guest / k4 41guest
           splinternet (open)

server : https://circulations.constantvzw.org/2024/

door code is 2211 (to re-enter)

10:30 : teapot excersise and presentation round

11:00: small intro of the week
intro- we are in an internal worksession that we called drempel drempel drempel ( a play on the dutch word that can mean obstacle but also a tool to cross over the obstacle) we always have 3 languages present , and us being non native dutch speakers we had a fascination on this word. In other languages this same word would have multiple words .
for context:
cane, sticky note, and another body (network of care)
is our yearly theme title we chose to work on accessibility

Research came from website accessibility, and moved on towards text and how you talk to people ... 
drempel drempel drempel, play with tri-linugal (EN ,NL, FR), but a play on three senses of the Dutch word.
Acknowledgement of English as a working language, Anglo-centric sources / inspirations that are drawn upon, and also itself a threshold.


Loraine Furter presentation

this might represent   the reality of not always being able to have a linear constant mode of working and talking about accessibility

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> 'Nothing about us without us!' (disability justice movements)
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not an us vs them, beyond this binary
disability can be temporary, a matter of time
not something fix
accessibility is often very solution driven, a problem we have to solve

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> Access intimacy is that elusive, hard to describe feeling when someone else "gets" your access needs. The kind of eerie comfort that your disabled self feels with someone on a purely access level."
Access intimacy: Mia Mingus, Access intimacy: The Missing Link, 2011
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Hybrid Publishing: publications that can exist in multiple forms
Resonance with thinking about access needs, multiplicity of forms to address a multiplicity of needs/situations (no single "solution" (no solutions))
cannot be exhaustive in the approach, thinking for methods for people with less means, smaller scale, 
avoiding to think in the direction of 'everybody should get everything', linked with universalism
> "Everyone should be able to understand everything": Universalist, Patriarchical

how to be able to be understand by some ppl in some time, and others in another time; thinking about specific public, context, spaces 

cyborg
mestiza: Anzaldua
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> "Write with your eyes like painters, with your ears like musicians, with your feet like dancers,. You are the truthsayer with quill and torch. Write with your tongues on fire."
Gloria Anzaldua, 'Speaking in Tongues: A Letter to Third World Women Writers', 1980
from WORDS IN OUR POCKETS , Celeste West, Editor
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should we translate everything or some languages should be there at the same time?
you can write in so many different ways, why to reduce it to an universal model?

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> "Access has this capacity to break through the medium [...] through access a single [   ] might exist as a description, as a notation, as sign language, as a transcript, or as a tactile object."
Caroline Lazard, Frieze 225, 2022
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interesting idea of transformation, not exact translation and that's okay; through translation you loose things but can gain others , it's problematic to think that through translation you can get everything

transformation vs translation

open source: offering sources as a way of giving (differing) access?

one of the best way to make a website accessible 
use language and formats in a way that identifies clearly things, to be recognized by other software
wiritng in HTML you use explicit tags / headers for instance, alt text...
in contrast to the design 'solution', a more humble means of demarcating that which can be realized externally, defer a decision to say a specific browser / situation where the markup is actually interpreted for a particular reader / user

interdependence vs interoperability

let it be reshape by other

multiplication of forms

notion of interdependence with Hamraie; it contains dependence which is a state not to avoid or be ashamed but with 'inter' it highlights the web of dependence 

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"Crip technoscience is committed to interdependence as political technology. We position the crip politics of interdependence as a technoscientific phenomenon, the weaving of relational circuits between bodies, environments, and tools to create non-innocent, frictional access. Mainstream disability technoscience presumes disability as an individual experience of impairment rather than a collective policial experience of world-building and dismantling. This perception has two primary consequences. First, disabled people are perceived to encourage independence. Second, disability and technology are both perceived as apolitical and stable phenomena, rather than material-discursive entanglements that take shape through struggle, negotiation, and creativity."
Aimi Hamraie, Kelly Fritsch, Crip Technoscience Manifesto, 2019
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solution

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Crash room = collective in Switzerland
https://crashroom.ooo/
working with translation, overcoming the english-language barrier, they do that in french
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++ alt-text ++
Alt-text = written description of an image (an excercise will follow in the afternoon)
Alt-text is built into the standard of HTML code (the programming language in which web-pages are written):
<img src="fileoftheimage.jpg" alt-text="an alternate description of what is in the image, which will be read out loud or written out in braile or shown otherwise in place of that image">
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poetry

description

you cannot announce everything, but if you think of describing an event you can think of elements that are important to mention

(the example of an experience involving working on the floor, had you been given a description of what was planned, would allow giving some warning / preparation for participants, in this case say: wear comfortable clothes)

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(f)oulipo
oulipo=ouvroir de literature potentielle (literary movement that came from France 1960s, mostly male)
foulipo: an attempt to bring feminism to the heritage of oulipo
worked with texts under constraint: write a text without letter m or write on the metro only when it's running 
interesting the potential of it is nice, feminst response to it
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potential
litterature

Drawing of Anzaldua: An outline of a hand with eyes, an ear, a mouth with a stick protruding from it
Text: "Spirtual Activism", "Acts of Vision", "Inner works" "public acts", "el compartir" 
"inner ear" "outer ear"

"Hieroglyph of a left hand on whose palm are pictured a pair of eyes, a mouth with a tongue hanging out and the writing tip of a pen at the tip of the tongue, Los ojos represent seeing and knowing which can lead to understanding or conocimiento."
Gloria Anzaldua, "The New Mestiz Nation: A Multicultural Movement" 2019

Extra Bold: A ...
Lupton and others

multisensorial

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Shy Radicals : Hamja Ahsan
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not just difference as a person on a wheelchair, but different ways of being in social contexts

before an event send a picture of the room so that people can prepare and be confortable working / be present / participating in the space

another body = getting other bodies inside?
accessibility, readability vs creative and colourful? 

togetherness in the museum, searching for connections, empaty

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Access Toolkit: Iarlaith Ní Fheorais 
https://www.accesstoolkit.art/
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drempel vrees ; fear of barriers, 
(wihout an e!?)
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++ drempel ++
de drempel zelfst.naamw. (m.) Uitspraak: [ ˈdrɛmpəl ] Afbreekpatroon: drem·pel Verbuigingen: drempels (meerv.) 1) verhoging op de vloer onder een deur Voorbeeld: 'Val niet over de drempel!' 2) <symbool voor een verandering of nieuw begin> Voorbeeld: 'op de drempel van een nieuwe tijd staan' 

EN: threshold self-styled noun (m.) Pronunciation: [ ˈdrɛmpəl ] Abbreviation: drem-pel Inflections: thresholds (plural) 1) elevation on the floor below a door Example: 'Don't fall over the threshold!' 2) <symbol for a change or new beginning> Example: 'standing on the threshold of a new age' 
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drempel as the obstacle, but also an object that one places to pass over / through (a softening of the border). 
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"Collective Engagment" A3 poster Charter / Dutch language
Qr code:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsu5XCLnmj8jEA89A_1AO6Q
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processes of experimentation...
website(s) ... and/or spaces ... orientation in a space (also for thinking about the future)

need for concreteness... preparation for workshop, thinking about language...

how to invite/acknowledge non standardness/ non-normativity in a good way 

dona as institutional translator :) (when speaking with those outside of the institution)

humbleness

multi-voices:
    different writers, those involved in an activity
the newsletter, some editing, respectful edits for clarity.

dutch: concrete practical demand... reflected in texts
french: other demands....

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Karina Dukalska: Creatives with Unseen Disabilities
https://www.karinadukalska.com/creatives-with-unseen-disabilities/
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Exhibition at Kolumba https://kolumba.de/
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avoiding "ticking the boxes"
how to label, without maybe "queer artist of color" (sense of ticking the boxes instead of identifying a person?)
what to label, what not to label....

Invite the artist to self-describe.

Globaroma workshop diaspora/decolonialisation
telling tales, sipping tea .... another language to describe...
dumpling stories ?! (knuedelverhaal)
you can use an alternative description, but then you stay maybe invisible to an outside audience.

Nice that you create a term / but becomes coded

Labels to address a wider public... no solution either?
Trial and error; avoiding a single / way

Avoiding: binary
At Kaai: fixed categories:  FILTERS ON KAAI:
dance, theater, performance, lecture, music, workshop, conversations, expo, film, lecure performance ......    
Suggestion to maybe release the labels, but no -- not negotiable!
   (but it makes it clearer)

// 

some points that came out from the round that we want to go practical about?

> labelling?
> translation of register, considering constant
> description of what situation you might expect

12:30: excercise around flyers and events (2 groups)


--
Lunch break
--

14:30: sharing the results of the excercise of the morning

---some flyers of constant---
kristine picked one up from cypher sex, which was not super legible
the exlpanation from constant is that they give space and time to young designers to work and experiment on open source softwares..

they picked up one from rosa
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++never-trust-an-ai++

an attempt to rewrite the introduction to a constant activity:
https://constantvzw.org/site/Workshop-Now-think-of-a-question-that-is-at-stake-for-you,3705.html

old text:

rosa   (they, them) is a feminist server that travels between different locations, providing a mobile infrastructure for learning, documentation, and experiments for the meetings that happened during the A Traversal Network of Feminist Servers project.  rosa   is not only its constituting hardware or software, but also the multitude of relations which are created around the making, maintaining and passing on of this infrastructure: the processes that are performed, the affective charge of their actioning, the communities around them. 

the text rewritten today:

rosa (they, them) is a feminist travelling server. Rosa provided a digital space for learning, documentation and experiments for the meetings of the project called A traversal network of feminist servers. rosa is not only a technological device it is also a community with practices of making, maintaining and sharing. 

The text rewritten by https://capito.eu

Rosa is a project that travels to different places.
It offers a space for meetings, learning, and trying new things.
The project is part of the A Traversal Network of Feminist Servers.
The space has chocolates, candies, and a soft toy for celebrations.
Rosa is more than just its hardware and software.
It is also about the people who use it and the relationships they create.
These relationships include the processes, emotions, and communities involved.
The users are an important part of Rosa's infrastructure.
They perform actions that affect the technology and the people around them.
Sharing Rosa involves passing it on to others.
These relationships are important for understanding how Rosa works and how it can be improved.
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using a "catch-all" term does have some accessibility, sometimes we should use a more specific term like networks instead of technology for example but, then it becomes too niche where people who know about technology might feel this part of networks is not for them..

tune the text to the activity too.. will it need specialized knowledges? 
when we know that a workshop is 

agnes: not even the simplified text makes sense to me 
the text is still 'obscure' also in the second version :)
So many terms that can be difficult to understand xpl
(what's a feminist server, how different from any server)

even if the text might target a broader audience, it is still very limited to people who know "techy" lingo

there is also a question of working with the artists' sensitivity , Constant asks the artists to propose their own text
it needs mediation (more equilibrium?) between the artists / artistic topic and the public

different filters to the text / AI 
dynamic text to have multiple versions,
markup for instance to have say a mouse over / additional explanation.

finding boundaries about use and relation to AI technology..


/// How to comunicate events / what is missing

some examples highlighted that would be good to describe
description (of a space, or a situation)

moment when audience asked a question...
participative or not...

kaai in renovation, abstract where you are going...

A large room with a lot of people
Wear something comfortable, because it's going to be participative...

Category: Type of activity
In constant, we don't use this anymore publically, but it's useful for the newsletter so people can understand immediately which type of event it is
Example from KAAI of trying to make icons for triggers/warning (stroboscop, sexual violence, 

DURATION ("i'm impatient, I want to know the duration")

Easy exit?
You can leave when you want?

What goes on the page, who communicates
The ticket taker could indicate an exit.

Esp. when it's not possible to leave discretely, this should be indicated.
Palace cinema, how NOT to communicate information?

"If you need to leave" information.

Knowing that you will be seated around a table (bad surprise, not the expectation)

you cannot leave, and if u leave u will get looks too! 
communication can be not only for people who need to leave (or stand because of back issues) but for everyone to raise awareness + for the makers (mise en scène…) to already have in mind: is the setting too constraining or does it give the possibility to leave
nova:"we put the money in programming, not the comfort of the seats"

Dust allergy: Old cinemas

Theater (example in Canal, industrial space during construction)

DR. guislain
when schools come with teenagers ( a category :D) theres a guide explaining particular procedures, involving the body, and such and, people start to faint. 

Widget example: https://www.museumdrguislain.be/nl/toegankelijkheid
Example of photogallery to show a space from the point of view of Accessibility.

the fact of creating a category/symbol around a situation, can raise awareness (for those unaware of the need)

multimedia descriptions 
kaai having to move in between kaai, having an image of the theater you're going to instead of lines of text description
having an image of the theater space

Example of a seated dinner: importance to highlight this more than just inside a text.

if there's participation involved/expected in the piece/show 
D escribing the situation you will be as a spectator; description of the space and of the piece 

15:00 : Alt-text excercise

++notes-from-alt-text-exercise++
https://circulations.constantvzw.org/2024/drempel/etherdump/pad/p/alt-text-as-poetry

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T wo different des c riptions were distant but also complementary
one was more on the description of detail s / on the side of ' objectivity '
the other one was using interpretation by for instance reading the body language...

Important to try to keep a balance between the picture and the text
normally an image will be next to a text that gives the context, there is no point in blowing up the role of the image with full details.. but rather to catch what it is important for that picture in that place..
To support the function of the image in being there.
S till, the reader can skip between elements, so they can choose if they want to hear the whole description of peter's conference setup sitting next to him?

Consider i f you have never seen in your life, what could you assume is relevant ?

When trying the alt-text, I have the feel ing of a need to be "objective"
hangups to write in a contrained way (sense of being inhibiting)
searching a middle-point seems indicative of the kind of work you should aim for.
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Warming up / butterfly image..
struggled to find 5 words

one without knowedge had more atmosphere...

Ideally an alt-text would take into account it's context? What role an image plays in a page --- or should it be 

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not wanting to describe someone in a way that gendering is assumed and enforced.
categorization, representation, interpretation of pictures presents a multiplicity of questions..

at the same time, in the picture of children training, it can be relevant to describe that it is 'white young boys', for the historical normative socialization of training and sport, the separation of genders in schools, etc. 
Children vs. boys... importance to signify a culturally specific concept.


When you describe someone you don't know, use -presenting... ie "white-presenting", or "young -presenting", as a means of making (more) clear that it's an interpretation.
you can say 'for my point of view she presents as white'

alt-text as place for "bonus" (a funny question, a little surprise).
I: when the image repeats what is already around in text format, such for example posting flyer, you can also instead add a 'bonus' a joke.
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++Bonus-listening++
Beautiful excerpt of a podcast we were too late to listen
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/713/made-to-be-broken/act-one-11
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