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
Category Archives: books
Berkman Will Webcast Open Workshop on Google Books Settlement
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society will host an open workshop July 31 at Harvard Law School on Alternative Approaches to Open Digital Libraries in the Shadow of the Google Book Search Settlement. Registration for in-person attendance is closed, … Continue reading
How Do I Access 1 Million Free Books From Google?
My question for Google Books is this: how do I get access to the public domain books without using Sony or Amazon as middlemen? I don’t need their eBook readers, thank you. My computer is my reader. And are all … Continue reading
Posted in books, Tutelary Spirits
Tagged accessibility, ebook, Google Books, public domain, Sony
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Google’s Bid to Control the “Digital-book Ecosystem”
Google envisions a “device agnostic” reading experience for e-books, which means circumventing Amazon’s control of the e-book market with its Kindle reader. When Google invokes a “digital-book ecosystem” (love the way ecosystem is becoming the euphemism de jour), guess who … Continue reading
The Medium is the Massage
McLuhan – The Medium is the Massage 2.1 by MyCluein: The Medium is the Massage excerpt from the 1967 audio book of the same name. The entire recording is at Ubu Web Sound.
Jacob Weinberg: A ‘Kindle Society’ Can Be Literate
NPR Talk of the Nation: On this week’s opinion page, Jacob Weinberg, editor-in-chief of the Slate Group, focuses on the new Kindle device. In a recent opinion piece on Slate.com, he asked: “Why should a civilization that reads electronically be … Continue reading