Alt-text is an essential part of web accessibility, making visual content accessible though 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 artist Shannon Finnegan and developed in collaboration with Bojana Coklyat, 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.

Shannon Finnegan is a multidisciplinary artist. They have done projects with Banff Centre, the High Line, Tallinn Art Hall, Nook Gallery, MCA Denver, and the Wassaic Project. Shannon has spoken about their work at the Brooklyn Museum, Data & Society, School for Poetic Computation, The 8th Floor, and The Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library. In 2018, they received a Wynn Newhouse Award and participated in Art Beyond Sight’s Art + Disability Residency. In 2019, Shannon was an artist-in-residence at Eyebeam. They live and work in Brooklyn, NY.

FREE for MESC members /$5 for non-members.

Register HERE. Attendance will be limited to 30 participants.

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