This exhibition lays out a new vision for accessibility in digital spaces, like The NEXT, where visitors encounter born-digital art, literature, and games. The title, "An Invitation to Experience," evokes a welcoming space where all visitors are empowered to engage each piece on their own terms. We welcome you to explore these ten selections, chosen from thousands hosted at The NEXT for the diversity of experiences they represent. Each engages visitors differently via sensory modalities like sight, sound, touch, and motion. As you explore, you will encounter new metadata terms that describe the kinds of information that visitors with disabilities and sensory sensitivities need to know. Beneath each work's description, you will also find a new statement that lays out in more detail what visitors can expect from each distinct experience.
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With The NEXT, the Electronic Literature Lab has archived and made available thousands of born-digital works of art, literature, and games. A major focal point of our vision entails “access for all:” we advocate for a broad view of accessibility, and with this exhibition we showcase a new approach to access for people with disabilities and sensory sensitivities.
Working with a team of metadata specialists, literary scholars, and scholars in disabilities justice, we developed a prototype addition to The NEXT’s metadata framework, ELMS, that expands the schema for this purpose with new controlled vocabularies. In addition, we developed a new statement that would be added to the description of each work, expressed in Plain/Simple English, that further details what visitors can expect from their experience in The NEXT.
New categories and controlled vocabularies for our metadata schema address experience in a number of sensory modalities. They describe the timing of content, its visuality, aurality, touch interactions, and motion, as well as detail specific hazards. Importantly, our approach focuses on the nature of a work’s content instead of prescribing “requirements” to experience the work, making space for visitors to engage on their own terms. For example, rather than suggesting that movement of the head is required for Fisher’s VR work Everyone at This Party Is Dead, we explain that the experience makes use of “head tracking” technology via a head-mounted display (HMD). Instead of suggesting that Aburto’s “paranoico arcoíris” requires visitors to use a standard mouse, we detail the kind of technical interaction and mechanisms involved, such as “cursor movement” and “fine motor control.” Only when mouse buttons, specifically, are required do we include “physical buttons (mouse),” and we check carefully to see which parts of the work, if any, are available to navigate with keystrokes.
Paired with this schema, the more narrative “Experiencing the Work” statement uniquely prepares and empowers visitors to engage on their own terms. Drawing on the example of “relaxed” theatre, concerts, and other such performances, this statement facilitates an understanding of how the work creates meaning through sensory modalities and what visitors can expect. Creating this statement requires a deep knowledge of the work, where one moves beyond identifying modalities to explaining how those modalities carry meaning. For instance, this statement clarifies for a work like Jim Andrews’ “Aleph Null” that distinguishing between red-green and blue-yellow does not impact navigating the project, but may impact its content, as these colors merge together in the space of this visual poem. Clearly, such judgments require careful attention to the work and its interpretation, but are vital for visitors with disabilities or sensory sensitivities.
This exhibition showcases ten works of born-digital art, literature, and games that have been assessed with our new prototype schema and for which we have researched and written “experiencing the work” statements. We invite you to explore this new approach to accessibility and experience a wide range of born-digital works.
Experiencing the Work
An Invitation to Experience
Exhibited by The NEXT in 2023.