Re-Imagining Accessibility
![Shepard Fairey’s “Barack Obama/Hope” image went viral during the 2008 election. Then controversy about the image’s source transformed it into the poster child for fair use in the public debate over copyright and free culture. Now FULAB takes “Hope” as its icon [Image source: Wikipedia]](http://fairuselab.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/shepard_fairey_hope_2008.jpg "shepard_fairey_hope_2008")
Re-imagining accessibility through the transformations of culture -- particularly the transformative promise of accessible technology for people with disabilities -- is the work of the Fair Use Lab. What does Shepard Fairey’s Hope poster have to do with accessibility? Read more: Shape-Shifters in the Fair Use Lab [MiT6 2009]
Remix: Danger Mouse
![Promotional artwork for "The Grey Album" by Justin Hampton. This was not used for the actual cover, but appeared on the Danger Mouse website in 2004. [Source: Wikipedia]](http://fairuselab.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/danger_mouse_grey_album_cover_200.jpg "danger_mouse_grey_album_cover_200")
Will DJ Danger Mouse become the Che Guevara of digital sampling? Consider the case for fair use made by The Grey Album.Blind Photographers
In the moment when Paul Strand photographed her surreptitiously on the street in New York, the social engineers who created a system for licensing beggars never imagined that a blind woman had culture or could make culture. She herself may not have imagined it. Paul Strand probably didn’t give her much credit for making culture, either. Read more: Curiosity & The Blind Photographer [MiT5 2007] See more on blind photographers.Disability As Praxis
I am a parent, homeowner, knowledge worker, and person with disabilities. Oppression is not my true word, but praxis is. In Paulo Freire’s transformative work, I find an affirmation deeper than ideology or political activism -- an affirmation of the dynamic role of disability in culture. I believe the daily praxis of making adaptations and negotiating accommodations represents a significant form of cultural production. Read Disability As Praxis.ADA 20th Anniversary
![President George H.W. Bush signs into law the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on July 26, 1990 as Justin Dart looks on. [Source: ucp.org]](http://fairuselab.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/ada_signing_072690_ucp_2.jpg "ada_signing_072690_ucp_2")
On its 20th anniversary, pundits will debate what the Americans with Disabilities Act has accomplished. I still believe what I said in a TV interview after the ADA signing ceremony in 1990. “The ADA will not end disability discrimination overnight. But in a nation governed by the rule of law, getting it in writing is the place to start.” So what is the ADA's legacy? A Generation of Problem-Solvers.
a blind flaneur
Monthly Archives: April 2010
Steven B. Johnson: “The Glass Box and the Commonplace Book”
In this talk given at the Columbia University Journalism School. Steven Johnson argues that the future of digital texts could go in two divergent directions. They could be confined in iPad-like “locked glass boxes” that cannot be shared or remixed. Or they could remain fungible and shareable in open formats that resemble the commonplace books from centuries past, personally curated collections of aphorisms and quotations. Continue reading
Posted in Future of Books
Tagged Amazon, Apple, books, DRM, fair use, Internet, iPad, remix, video talks
Leave a comment
To the barricades with Cory Doctorow!
Cory Doctorow: “I came to the copyfight from a pretty parochial place. As a working artist, I wanted a set of just copyright rules that provided a sound framework for my negotiations with big publishers, film studios, and similar institutions.” Continue reading
What Makes Erotica Accessible for the Blind?
I champion accessible books of all kinds, so I applaud this one. I bet it gets more media hype than actual sales, though. News stories tout it as “Braille porn” but the staggering price and hand-crafted construction, albeit with plastic thermoform paper and spiral binding, make it more of an art book. Each copy is numbered and signed by the artist, who volunteers at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB). Continue reading
Tech Talk Features Leo Ebook Reader on April 5
Tek Talk offers an early look at Blio, the new touchstone in accessible e-book reading for everyone, Monday, April 5, 2010. This will provide an opportunity to learn more about the exploding world of e-books and the especially exciting e-book reader called Blio just being released by K-NFB Reading Technology. Continue reading
Accessible Follow-ups From CSUN 2010
Many thanks to Jerry Hensley, my accessible tech guru, for sending these links to interviews from the 2010 CSUN conference. Continue reading