19/03/24
Some trials for the accessibility of the website following drempel drempel drempel (which happened the previous week)
- Accessibility page

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15/01/24 Accessibility reading group 
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"What is our intention with the website"

For the upcoming weeks/months, we want to think about/work on: 
- Wendy: button tracks for the workshops is pretty clear, the thing to work on now is connecting to specific groups who would join workshop but also give feedback 

- Elodie: radical budgetting; how to set up a yearly accessibility pot (question of timing, how to communicate it)
- Imane: what the heck is a coding club, thinking about the geographical aspect in relation to the goal of the club; make coding club relevant in another type of context than commercial-building-a-website type of thing

- Martino: looking at the difficult question of how to relate to accessibilty technologies that rely on extraction ; looking at theory but also [...] (Elo joins!==> still interesteddd)


- Peter: title (cane, sticky notes and another body), aid devices, how ppl support their lives with them. Simple approach of finding people and interviewing people on how they use their devices maybe differently than it was meant or with hacks - hacksessibility

- Mia : Time, crip time, time perspective. Linked to how administrative structures play into your perspective of time and support. 
Threads


Other notes;
Do not climb the Himalayas after eye operation




5/12/23 Accessibility reading group 
------------------------------------

All Areas Access
Discussion on signal about a music festival > All Areas Access ( https://www.allareasaccess.eu/about/ )
Project that experiments with more-accessible concerts/events/clubnights
invited band to do a week research around accessibility, collaborating with a performer that performs with sign language and movements, translating mostly the drumming because of the vibrations, but with 
numbered menu for easier ordering 
https://cloud.constantvzw.org/apps/files/?dir=/2.%20Projects/Cane-Sticky_Note-Another_Body/research_materials&openfile=865293

alt-text alt-audio podcasts
podcast interview of someone slowly becoming blind 
a few things that really jumped out - linked to text-to-speech thing; full on alt-text, 
primary problem of blindness is access to information for that he mentions: 
- do a podcast; called talk describtion to me ; one episode for instance of how the president of ukraine looks like; or describe the day of the death in Mexico - very nice mechanism 
- another podcast say my meme - describing meme > > https://www.bemyeyes.com/podcasts-show/say-my-meme
- an app called describe what I'm seeing - you need a smartphone with camera, you log on  and ask someone who sees to describe what they see through the camera ; more and more reliance on AI ; interesting merging of different questions 

AI question
Tension between AI and accessibility possibilities; it's gonna come up more and more 
zoom subtitles to a level we couldn't achieve which means people who need them will logically refer to zoom 
link to this type of tool > https://www.leessimpel.nl/; scanning of documents and translation (belastingdienst stuffs for instance) wanting to  resist the 'invasion' of AI because it's exctractive on many levels but through different ways it also provides tools and services to people who are in need; this tension is important to keep in mind 
takin a different approach at constant? alt-audio, instead of alt-text.. for example for photos of collective moments, something more experiential recorded description of the situation..
google for example really pushes alt-text, 'retributing' by putting it higher in results.. super descriptive alt-texts are pushed, as google wants 'good' alt-text, but it is good for machines and machine-learning, but often for screen-reader needs it is way too long and descriptive!

website accessibility menus
about the website; in the commercial accessibility app you see the possibility of layering (contrast, black and white) is that a way to go; because if you do alt-text or alt-audio are you adding a layer? changing the layer? ...? 
example of neon; accessibility features 
accessibility work that cannot be automated would be the space that we could experiment in 
google is pushing for alt-text because if it's good it can feed image recognition systems 
spip and alt-text; different things, the webiste needs to be put out of the iframe and 
if the thinking is about the menu for instance, (the things we present) we could accept that not all the items of the menu are given the same focus; we cannot do the same thing at the same time but saying we're focusing on only one thing would be cutting too much possibilities 
NOTE: we are talking about adding an accessibility menu to the website!
de-squiggle button! 
(an big pin-button you can press)

alt-text for audio, no onomatopee
did an exercice with student, typography class; watching a movie with subtitles there's the words but also a bit of audio description; collected different elements (sentences and description of sounds) and asked to write descriptions without onomatopées etc. 
christine sun kim : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Euof4PnjDk&ab_channel=TED
recommanded even if it's a tedtalk; deaf artist

definition of focus? is it necessary?
 we're reaching some focus of some crossing; wondering about asperger, both interested in some crossing but bringing neuro-diversity would widen the scope. We started with a very large framework around accessibility and now we're trying to put more focus. Did we (or should we) choose to focus on some things particularly ?
( ALIAS - Cronicle from Asperger Planet - in italian https://www.spreaker.com/user/autoridellarealta/alias )

cripping-the-space
crip-in-the-space meeting: everyting was together (neurodiversity, wheelchair users, etc) which made us going in all direction but that good because the question are complex 
when we start developing things on the website; do we want test groups or do we contact cripping-the-space?  https://www.kunsten.be/en/meetings-programmes/sectordag-cripping-the-space/ + https://www.kunsten.be/en/research/a-fair-new-world/a-fair-new-idea/a-fair-new-idea-4-multiple-voices-in-the-arts/a-fair-new-idea-4-multiple-voices-cripping-the-space/
-> sophie joie who works in kunstenpunt on the accessibility topic 
for the workshop, specifically want a public that has other bodies/brains; for that I'd like to contact people to talk with them. Do we want testers (a sort of specific feedback group)? which we have to pay. If we're starting to work on the website ... 

cripability and delovie
Cripability; how to understand that, testing with people who are directly involved in but it could also be a question of how can we learn for you?; contacting associations that work with accessibilty, there's tons of them so having a focus and questions is important. 
Arne Naert working at De Lovie vzw. https://delovie.be/
Visited Constant during the Techno Disobedience storytelling.
He does care work with people and combines it with his artistic practice; 
Some work complex, such as activating devices without remote controls in care spaces (for example through biking)
https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/12/bike-generator-at-paris-exhibition/
Care for care; working with people doing care work; this could be where the mutual interest lies 
another mentioned space, koca in antwerp
https://www.koca.be/

publishing machines
thinking about devices; design object (PJ machine) that Sarah Garcin made; a device to do lay-out but that you wouldn't be in front of a computer ; you could zoom in or shift things around, it was a set of buttons; it was really thought of for collective work
https://sarahgarcin.com/
source code: https://github.com/sarahgarcin/pj-machine
some images > https://sarahgarcin.com/projets/pj-machine

internal notes: newsletter thematic reminder + budget pot pro-access
End of the year newsletter that will announce the change in thematics; the change in rhythm; 
How to put costs in Constant budget to create a pot for the year that can support accessibility questions, responding to different necessities that emerge throughout the year (without pre-defining what this needs will be, but developing the ability to accomodate them when they appear)
[Being aware that this is not just a money question but also an investment of a lot of energy into administration]


film program ageing companions
When working on ageing companions, ageing cyborgs etc it became split between obsolescence, and and?? 
It's almost like we do a re-stich it is about bodies, precarity, shift of normativity towards devices supporting bodies
one thing done was the film program: what if bodies break down would be nice to collect films going into metaphor of breaking bodies, popular films but also more indé


flexible approach to normative time frames: 
    https://dsq-sds.org/index.php/dsq/article/view/5824/4684
    
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S23ddSMxkc8&ab_channel=IRTGDiversity
To crip is to make visible what has been actively invisibleised. to point a finger at an access gap.
can everybody crip? perhaps yes, just like feminism is an analytic that can be carried in any situation even if its not about gender on the surface..
important for able bodies people to understand when and where to use it


"What is our intention with the website"

For the upcoming weeks/months, we want to think about/work on: 
- Wendy: button tracks for the workshops is pretty clear, the thing to work on now is connecting to specific groups who would join workshop but also give feedback 
- Elodie: radical budgetting; how to set up a yearly accessibility pot (question of timing, how to communicate it)
- Imane: what the heck is a coding club, thinking about the geographical aspect in relation to the goal of the club; make coding club relevant in another type of context than commercial-building-a-website type of thing
- Martino: looking at the difficult question of how to relate to accessibilty technologies that rely on extraction ; looking at theory but also [...] (Elo joins!)
- Peter: title (cane, sticky notes and another body), aid devices, how ppl support their lives with them. Simple approach of finding people and interviewing people on how they use their devices maybe differently than it was meant or with hacks - hacksessibility

NEXT MEETING 15.01.23 at 10am; we work on those points + we think of people we'd like to think with (for internal worksession or across the year), there's already a lot of people there > https://pad.constantvzw.org/p/2024


Website:
    saturate desaturate button: https://www.criticalinfralab.net/


21/11/23 
How constant becomes temporary! 
Each of us select an aspect of the readings and the thinking of today to come up with the beginning of a proposal for next year, it could be on the level of the content but also our modes of doing internally 

Things Mia wanted to share 
-- Time Bandit, a part of a radio show where they talk about a performance, partly listening to the performance, partly talking to the performer. It is quite american in its narrative, and made for public radio, but I think it is also very very beautiful (you could skip the interview part that comes in the middle, from 18:10-29:25 if you want to mainly hear the performance and final thoughts from the performer. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/713/made-to-be-broken/act-one-11

-- Just an open font which is more legible for some people with dyslexia that I thought was also quite nice and squishy looking https://opendyslexic.org/


Other resources:
-- https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2020/08/24/cripping-the-resistance-no-revolution-without-us/
-- Crip Technosience Manifesto quoted in the Splint cards  https://catalystjournal.org/index.php/catalyst/article/view/29607/24771


Accessibility Study Club
Everyone read "What is disability" by Sunaura Taylor, yes imane too 

"Nondisabled" is inevitably temporary
-- Crip time and futuring 
"Accessible enough" -- parallel lines to "queer enough" and tactics that were used in the queer community making
Dispersal of community, loss of community (makers)
-----feeling mispplaced, coming from a different time, belonging elsewhere, the future world will get me but not now, not here

Questioning paradigms of independence - the idealisation of independence, self sufficiency and not needing community.


Connection with animal life as another lens to analyse 'lesser humans' normativity; humans and non humans are related in what we think they can and cannot do 
Mix of animal right studies and disability studies 
the pigeon x migrant crisis in south korea is a good link, but maybe too far off from how we want to look at a11y

Not liking the link between disability and animal studies; find it scary; interesting points are being made. Too little understanding of disability studies to be able to make the link to animal studies in a way that it's helpful; wanting a gap between the two but not sure how 
Temporality of looking at disability, cannot be useful for everyone with disability - the text is maybe more talking to non-disabled people to tell them you will be disabled at some point 
also wanting to be careful to not romantisize the state of being disabled; 

historical strong roots in the categorization of animality; somehow defined what we think animals can do and cannot do, for instance birds can't smell, don't have a nose, so we can cut their beak. 

importance of words use; something clear that pops up; same with metaphor, the way they resonate, aspect of othering, what also comes out of the productivity being wholesome, capitalism; access is intersectional; 

Both texts front the intersectional aspects - depending on your class, race etc you have a higher probability of having a disability

The "super crip narrative" is very interesting and how omnipresent it is
invisibility/visibility of disability; most people presume ability in others unless it is very visible
The link to "passing"
How things are made invisible - wondering how this could inform our take on it
How disability is felt as a threat to that progress line 

Institutionalisation 
exploitation within institutions 

Links to constant parts: 
+ The mention that accessibilty makes art iterative (episodes) / versions (media/ text/ .. )

+ The need to question independancy, productivity and efficiency, normalcy and "natural" (normal technology vs specialised technology), medicalisation 
Words that resonate a lot with what we are already busy with but perhaps not in a crip way 

On a personal note: The connection with animality or brutality and race really touched me as it is something I have lived. 

Keeping in mind if exploring "Nondisabled" is inevitably temporary, we have to be careful not to romanticise, or not include the fact that a lot of people wish they were not disabled, or for whom it is not something they "visit" but know that they will live their whole life. 

Crip time - flexibility
Not just expanded but exploded
How long things take (reading time but also crossing the road time) - super normative and oppressive 
How disability is making movement difficult if not prohibited (impossible to get permanent residency in some country if you have autism) 
discrimination through automation by governments 
points system - quantification of disability feeling like a loading bar
disability regulations and quantification systems would give you "enough points" to officially be disabled (and have access to related welfare measures) as a child but not as an adult

tension between... how the text goes into the figure of the child, it makes the link of how ableism and homophobia link in using the child as a excuse; in both sense, positive and negative. How the image of the progress how there's an horizon that justified political agenda
in one sense you have this kind of progress that makes a certain form of life secondary, and management systems and points systems, there's this dark force of "bettering the human" ( more efficient, and an extension of the modern racist anthropocentric frameworks ) that goes along a quantified system managing -- not necessarily caring -- for the ones that cannot meet the efficientist requirements








Q: We would like to ask Constant to do a case study. How do you think about access within Constant? What would it need from our project to make for example Constant change its relation to access ?

A: Constant works with “access” and “accessibility” on different levels; there is not a general 'policy'/position (which might tell you something already?) so we are constructing this answer a bit ad-hoc. Before answering what we need from you, we are interested to hear what you feel needs to change in Constant's relation to access, and we’d be happy to follow up later !


NOTES
- check with vzw inter for label for events / advise for accessibilty (design / building) https://www.inter.vlaanderen
how to accessible event: https://www.inter.vlaanderen/events/diensten/intereventslabel
how to accessible design: https://www.inter.vlaanderen/toegankelijkheid-en-universal-design/universal-design/zeven-principes

- How do the guidelines figure in here/relate?
- Difference between Constant's current made-to-measure approach (asking for needs, working with an individual approach; trusting our sensitivity but ... adhoc) and providing generalised access. Scale? MELT: 'access not as an individual need'
- The accessibility of Constant as a place to do/think/use with, for different groups, individuals
- access + complexity: "Its important to hold space for people to explore, but not everything that is there can be immediately picked up by everyone."
- Link/relation to (future) work on Free, Libre, Intersectional Technologies. MELT: What kinds of access practices and making of pathways for people into Constant who are not "fluent in technology"? https://pad.constantvzw.org/p/access-server 
- https://alt-text-as-poetry.net/
- 'ableism helps make racism, christian supremacy, sexism, and queer- and transphobia possible ... those systems of oppression are intertwined.'
- https://clpp.hampshire.edu/what-disability-justice-some-resources-get-you-started

https://superrr.net/project/workshop-power-and-diversity/

Mia Mingus’s work stems from a Disability Justice framework. Disability Justice as a framework understands that all bodies are unique and essential. All bodies have strengths and needs that must be met. We are powerful not despite the complexities of our bodies, but because of them. All bodies are confined by ability, race, gender, sexuality, class, nation state, religion, and more, and we cannot separate them. (SINS INVALID 2019)

https://entornoalasilla.wordpress.com/
https://superrr.net/

https://jararocha.blogspot.com/2021/04/tecnologicamente-diversas-seminario.html

"Critical cultural disability studies and mental health : a rhetorical perspective" (article by oa Kris Rutten)
https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8717808

Ellen Forney, Marbles: Mania, depression, Michelangelo and me, a graphic novel from queer bi-polar artist
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/08/marbles-mania-ellen-forney-review