Alt-Text as Poetry (Update)
Access resident, Shannon Finnegan, talks about reframing alt-text as a type of poetry.
Now that it’s been two years since my Eyebeam residency, lorem ipsum. In my art practice, I think about how we can move towards better and more nuanced approaches to access. Instead of focusing on compliance and doing the minimum, what if we approach access creatively and generously, centering disability culture? How do we make spaces and experiences that disabled people not only can access, but want to access?
A few years ago, I created an installation for the Wassaic Project called Anti-Stairs Club Lounge. The Wassaic Project’s exhibition space is inaccessible: seven flights of stairs, with no ramp or elevator access above the ground floor.
The lounge is exclusively for visitors who cannot or choose not to go upstairs. Visitors get the passcode to enter the lounge by signing a form at the front desk certifying they will not go to the upper floors of the exhibition. So the chilled seltzer, cushions, and sun-filled space are just for us.
During my Eyebeam Residency, I have been thinking about access in digital spaces. Along with my collaborator Bojana Coklyat, I am working on a project that reframes alt-text as a type of poetry. We want to move alt-text from the realm of compliance to a space of exploration, experimentation, and artistry.