LAUNCH: Accessible Bits 1.0
Submission Type
Panel
Start Date/Time (EDT)
18-7-2024 2:15 PM
End Date/Time (EDT)
18-7-2024 3:15 PM
Location
Hypertexts & Fictions
Abstract
With this festive “panel” session, we launch the publication of Accessible Bits 1.0: Framework for Disability-Inclusive Electronic Literature.
The outputs of the PAD initiatives have been vital to the sustaining of the field of electronic literature, which the documents “Acid-Free Bits: Recommendations for Long-Lasting Electronic Literature” (Montfort and Wardrip-Fruin, 2004), and “Born-Again Bits: A Framework for Migrating Electronic Literature” (Liu et al, 2005). In addition to Preservation, Archiving, and Dissemination, there has been a growing interest in accessibility as a way to create sustainable electronic literature from a disability-inclusive perspective. This has been discussed at ELO (un)conferences but lacked a resource that is specific to electronic literature.
Accessible Bits is a guide for authors to create more accessible electronic literature. As such, it fills a paucity of resources on electronic literature’s accessibility which has been informally discussed for years within the scientific community. The document is not only a plea for writers to work proactively in ensuring their creations are accessible to a wide range of potential readers but also to explore the creative possibilities that writing in accessible manners opens. Rather than prescriptive, the document asks you to reflect on your own work in relation to accessibility.
The publication of Accessible Bits is supplemented with the launch of a contributory GitHub repository. In this repository, we will keep an updated list of resources for accessibility as well as a list of exemplary works of electronic literature. Linking these resources in addition to the introductory document of Accessible bits will ensure that electronic literature authors with varying levels of accessibility experience will be supported by our project.
Join our panel session to learn about the basics of digital accessibility, how to use Accessible Bits and to get an insight into how this works out in practice. We will have a live ‘clinic’ to discuss accessibility aspects of various works of electronic literature. This will include one work by one of the panelists [anonymized for peer review] as well as works from participants in the session, who are invited to bring challenges with their own works. All and all, this will be the festive, interactive launch of Accessible Bits 1.0.
Recommended Citation
Ackermans, Hannah; Larsen, Deena; Skains, Lyle; and Snyder, Richard, "LAUNCH: Accessible Bits 1.0" (2024). ELO (un)linked 2024. 27.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/elo2024/hypertextsandfictions/schedule/27
LAUNCH: Accessible Bits 1.0
Hypertexts & Fictions
With this festive “panel” session, we launch the publication of Accessible Bits 1.0: Framework for Disability-Inclusive Electronic Literature.
The outputs of the PAD initiatives have been vital to the sustaining of the field of electronic literature, which the documents “Acid-Free Bits: Recommendations for Long-Lasting Electronic Literature” (Montfort and Wardrip-Fruin, 2004), and “Born-Again Bits: A Framework for Migrating Electronic Literature” (Liu et al, 2005). In addition to Preservation, Archiving, and Dissemination, there has been a growing interest in accessibility as a way to create sustainable electronic literature from a disability-inclusive perspective. This has been discussed at ELO (un)conferences but lacked a resource that is specific to electronic literature.
Accessible Bits is a guide for authors to create more accessible electronic literature. As such, it fills a paucity of resources on electronic literature’s accessibility which has been informally discussed for years within the scientific community. The document is not only a plea for writers to work proactively in ensuring their creations are accessible to a wide range of potential readers but also to explore the creative possibilities that writing in accessible manners opens. Rather than prescriptive, the document asks you to reflect on your own work in relation to accessibility.
The publication of Accessible Bits is supplemented with the launch of a contributory GitHub repository. In this repository, we will keep an updated list of resources for accessibility as well as a list of exemplary works of electronic literature. Linking these resources in addition to the introductory document of Accessible bits will ensure that electronic literature authors with varying levels of accessibility experience will be supported by our project.
Join our panel session to learn about the basics of digital accessibility, how to use Accessible Bits and to get an insight into how this works out in practice. We will have a live ‘clinic’ to discuss accessibility aspects of various works of electronic literature. This will include one work by one of the panelists [anonymized for peer review] as well as works from participants in the session, who are invited to bring challenges with their own works. All and all, this will be the festive, interactive launch of Accessible Bits 1.0.
Bio
Hannah Ackermans is a postdoctoral researcher within the Center for Digital Narrative at the University of Bergen. Ackermans' postdoctoral research investigates the role of embodiment and (dis)ability in electronic literature's functioning, accounting for both the bodymind of the implied reader and the potential diversity of readers' bodyminds. As part of their postdoc, Ackermans is coordinating the Living Glossary of Digital Narrative, the Digital Narrative Knowledge Base, and the CELL project.
Deena Larsen is artist in residence at the Electronic Literature Lab, has been in the digital literature field for decades. Her goal in life is to ensure everyone can enjoy the fascinating possibilities in hypertext/new media/digital stories/and more. Deena has authored over 30 works of electronic literature, including Marble Springs (Eastgate Systems 1993 and revamped 2013), one of the first interactive works of story-poetry, Samplers (Eastgate Systems 1997), Disappearing Rain, and more recelty The Water Seller with Faith Bassey (New River 2023). She has collaborated on works with other artists, ran workshops and other forums from 1997 to the present, and is currently running the Second Tuesday Salon and the Third Thursday Women Electronic Literature Writers in Wikipedia Project.
Lyle Skains is an award-winning researcher and creative practitioner in Creative Digital Writing and Science Communication. She conducts practice-based research into writing, reading/playing, publishing digital and transmedia narratives, and how these can be used for health and science communication. Her recent digital fiction includes 'No World 4 Tomorrow' for the You & CO2 project, and 'Only, Always, Never' for the Infectious Storytelling project; both works were designed to effect social change. She is the founder of Wonderbox Publishing, which publishes speculative digital fiction, aiming to explore innovations in digital and online publishing and creativity. She is also the coordinator of the New Media Writing Prize, and an editor of the Electronic Literature Collection, volume 4. Her digital fiction can be found at lyleskains.com; articles in Convergence, Digital Creativity, and Computers and Composition; and books with Cambridge UP (Digital Authorship), Emerald (Using Interactive Digital Narrative for Health and Science Communication) and Bloomsbury (Neverending Stories: The Popular Emergence of Digital Fiction).
Richard Snyder is Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of English & Communications at Northwest University and Associate Director of the Electronic Literature Lab (ELL) and Metadata Specialist for The NEXT. He is interested in how the language-image relationship in poetry and narrative has evolved during major technological shifts, especially the transition to print and the digital computer. As part of the development team for ELMS, he has theorized and implemented better methods of describing born-digital art for people with disabilities, work that continues with a grant from the Society of American Archivists in summer of 2023. His writing have appeared in publications such as The Future of Text, Vol. 3, and the Journal of Marlowe Studies. As "rdsnyder," he has published poetry and visual art in venues like The New River Journal, Taper, and the Virtual Museum of Posthumanist Art. Recent curatorial work includes The Alan Sondheim Collection (April 2023) and The Ephemera of Electronic Art (Spring 2022).