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
Tag Archives: Amazon
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
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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
Check Out “The Learned Fangirl”
I had the pleasure of sharing an MiT6 session on Intellectual Property last Sunday with Keidra Chaney and Raizel Liebler, who presented a talk on The Intellectual Property of User-Generated Content. They publish a great blog called The Learned Fangirl, … Continue reading
Posted in public information
Tagged accessibility, Amazon, blogs, Google, MiT6, public domain, public information
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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
Amazon Adds Speech To New Kindle
Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, unveiled the Kindle 2 on Monday in New York. [Photo by Michael Appleton/NYT] Amazon in Big Push for New Kindle Model NYT 020909 Amazon introduced several new features for the Kindle. A new text-to-speech function … Continue reading