Since we won't have a synchronous class session this week because of Election Day, post your in-class writing response here instead. See the weekly post for more details. Here is a copy of the prompt:
First, summarize the section that you choose in about 4-5 sentences (Space, Mode, Community, Reason, or Ableism). Then, explain how you would apply the concepts from the reading to your final portfolio design, as well as your creations and designs beyond the course. How might you account for disabilities, neurodiversity, and access in your work? In your field?
The section I focused on was community. In the reading, the community acts like the audience while it focuses on how the audience can participate and act within the community just like other people. The keyword I tend to find was inclusion and fitting in. As the reading focused on those with disabilities, inclusion of not only physical space is important, but also the full inclusion of those with disabilities is what we should be aiming for. This full inclusion means to have them fit in the community without any concerns or difficulties in the process they are taking. The reading then focuses about attitude. It tends to be similar with inclusion as just the accessibility to certain things will not make them feel included. The attitude difference can give change to the overall environment as we are not trying to leave out somebody.
The application of this section to my project will be based on how I set the audience. As my project relates to ocean waste, the main audience will not be those with disabilities as well as it being a academic project, it will be hard to focus on them specifically. However, it is possible to create the third project more focused on those with hardship as it is important that everyone needs to understand the importance of the natural environment. In future projects, I think the use of such inclusion would give great help in thinking about the audience and community.
The section I chose to focus on for this activity was Ableism. I have always thought that this was a very vital topic in our society, as there is a significant portion of the society that is differently abled, meaning that there is a portion of the world that needs to be thought about when making something. One one takes into account some of the points made from the Reason module, it is easy to see how important it is to take into consideration the perspectives and viewpoints of disabled groups when creating something. If you are not careful, you can develop a savior complex, and unintentionally come off as condescending or patronizing. This module shows how art does not happen in a vacuum, there is always someone or something that will be affected by it.
I can apply the concepts that I learned here into my later projects by always keeping in mind how my creations will affect certain groups or perspectives. It is impossible to make everyone happy, but to show that you are aware of how you are affecting the world around you is a pretty important awareness to have. It is important to understand the context in which you are creating your work, and to understand said context in order to explain your ideas and intent.
The section I chose to focus on for the week was community. In the section, it discusses how it is important to enable accessibility of media for those who have disabilities. Authors are responsible for making their platforms available and welcoming toward disability. In an author's mind, there is a relationship between our attitudes toward disability and our design practices. This relationship is seen when accommodations are created in order to effect the attitudes in certain spaces of design. If we change our attitudes, there will be a change in set standard of expectations in place of what our attitudes display in the media we produce.
After reading the community section over, I am able to reflect on my pieces and how accessible they are to those with disabilities. I think in order to enhance my final portfolio, I will need to include captions and audio recordings for my major projects. I want to become more aware of how others consume media and ensure my media is accessible to everyone. In my field of Chemistry, I think that audiobooks, video essays, and other interactive visuals help people learn the field.
I chose to focus on the section space for this particular assignment. When we think about space, we only think about the face-to-face. However, we should also think about online spaces. When we think of access, we almost always exclude a large group of people including different: classes, races, gender & sexuality. The changes that must be made in this particular area are not changes that will happen overnight, but they are changes that must happen. The author mentions that kairotic spaces are the less formal, often unnoticed, areas of academe where knowledge is produced and power is exchanged. These types of studies tend to be understudied. The author was basically talking about how space is overlooked in academia. It is a fact that most professors/academic professionals do not create course work around the idea of universal accessibility. The author also mentions how we will never get to the point of universal accessibility, but there are small steps that we can take to get as close to it as possible. When thinking about space & other elements, it is important that coursework can be accessed in a variety of ways to accommodate all students.
I will apply the concepts that I have learned in my portfolio by making sure that I find a way to make my portfolio accessible to a wide range of students. I will pay attention to how I use space in relation to making it accessible. I could include audio & transcribed forms of my assignments. This way, it will accommodate more people.
What I learned from the reason portion of the website is that the “reason” to accommodate for these disabilities is because there are still certain people who think the ones with disabilities are the problem. Even worse there are some who view themselves as saviors to the people with disabilities when they create certain things for them. The speaker talks about recognizing disabilities as natural, that they stick with the person for potentially the rest of their lives, and that we need to work towards a future where we shed off the misconceptions and prejudice of people with disabilities. All of this in order to bring a more clear, positive, and concise society.
Honestly, that is a really tough question. In terms of what I made already I find that it would be very hard to create options for people with disabilities, especially when you don’t exactly know what to target. Going forward if it all possible with the certain type of project that it is, if I could somehow include an options menu in there somewhere to accommodate that disability then I think that would be a really positive thing. Once again though it is very hard to tackle that concept without even knowing what you are tackling it for.
The section that I chose was space. Space is suggested to be more than just face to face interaction. It is interesting how presence is used in space to describe when someone is absent. From describing how people use or see their phone to signal their departure. One thing that got my attention was when this section goes into depth in telepresence how it embodies a person to be marked or forced to be present or absent depending on a given context. The reading explains that certain places always assume that the ones who will be present will be those who can orally or aurally listen or read. However, those who are disabled like deaf won’t be able to listen to a conversation, but instead, pick up facial cues through lip-reading or having someone else tell them what is going on.
How I will apply the concepts I have learned for my portfolio design is through making sure that I have an appropriate and varied amount of options available for different people who may have a hard time approaching my website that I will use for my portfolio. My field involves speech pathology, which I have learned that it is not okay to assume everyone can read, talk, or listen. For this reason, there should always be a resource available for those struggling with a disability. I will make sure that I have a question box available in my portfolio where someone can reach out to me about any questions or concerns they may have.
Mode
When we think about mode or modality, we think about how texts use an extensive variety of resources that can activate multiple senses of the audience. There are a few aspects we need to consider when creating a multimodal project- commensurability, retrofitting, and design. Commensurability is how we decide whether or not our multimodal is measured the same across all modes-is it accessible to everyone? When we think about retrofitting, we think about adding something (it doesn't have to make the project function, but it helps to make something better or correct it). As for design, it's more or less self-explanatory. How do we design the product, is it something that the audience will respond to, something they will like and use?
Concepts to Final Portfolio
My final portfolio design will be created on wix! I think one thing that I might really focus on from the readings to add into the portfolio is Mode in terms of the design. I want it to be something that people will respond to, and will be able to respond to. Because this is a website design, it'll hopefully give me a lot of tools to work with when it comes to not only design, but to accessibility. For my project one, since it's video game, I think I should definitely look and see if there's any way to code sounds or a script inside, so those with sight disabilities are able to benefit from it. Same goes for the videos in my project 2, the audio should be consistent and clear enough where they know what's going on the whole time (meaning I am thorough with what I am talking about, rather than making random comments throughout the video). Maybe I should look into adding subtitles and transcripts to the videos as well.