ACCESS SERVER

There are three structures consisting of an illustration and some text each with doodly arrows connecting them that represent the flow of the ACCESS SERVER. The three structures are labeled “Website Form”, “Access Server” and “Institution”, and a fourth headline is titled “Private Email”. The illustration of the website form shows the rounded outlines of this form opened in an internet browser with the browser menu being represented by three little dots and one field of the form contains the words “do you have captions”. The illustration displaying Access Server consists of three rounded forms representing a server rack with three green LED illuminated lights. This illustration has circuit-like arms pointing outwards. Extending from one arm an email with a heart on it moves outwards towards the next illustration that displays an institution. The institution is drawn as a rectangular building with large windows and two stairs in front, and a ramp-like rectangle is drawn over them. Another email is placed so that it looks as though it is leaving the institution and moving towards the Access Server illustration by following a blue arrow. The last blue arrow connects Access Server to the headline “Private Email”. In the text that follows this image description we discuss the steps connecting these structures and the processes they each enact.

ACCESS SERVER is an email server that anonymizes, collects and financially compensates access requests that disabled people send towards cultural institutions. Access requests explain what a disabled person needs to attend spaces, be they online or physical. The project is currently in the conceptual and prototyping stage.

As a digital arts tool, ACCESS SERVER disrupts systematically ableist cultural institutions in Europe. The project is threefold: For disabled people, it offers email templates and 20€ per email to account for the labor of asking for access such as closed captions, alt texts, sign language and scent-free spaces. All emails routed through the server will link to the website in the footer, and automatically cite previous access requests to the same institution. For institutions, it provides information on how to make spaces, events and websites more accessible and how to respond to access requests. In events called ACCESS SPARKS nondisabled and disabled people can share and learn about access.

An illustration shows an open example email. The email is sent to request@access-server.com, has the subject line 'ACCESS REQUEST: Sign Language?' and is addressed to hello@culturalinstitution.com, in this case a placeholder email address for a cultural institution. The email reads: Dear cultural institution, I was hoping to join your event XX as it is relevant to my research practice. Will there be International Sign Language interpretation available? With my best wishes, Access Seeker. The email quotes another email from a previous disabled email writer who wrote: Hi cultural institution, I would like to visit your exhibition XX with my electric wheelchair. Can you please tell me if doors and
pathways are accessible? With my best wishes, Access Seeker.

ACCESS SERVER VIDEOS

Discourse

Paper: 'ACCESS SERVER: Dreaming, practicing and making access'

Lecture: ‘Intersectional Accessibility: Meet the Access Server’, RINGVORLESUNG: Fehlende Inklusion in der Wissenschaft? Invited by Dr. Maureen Maisha Auma and Dr. Mark Terkessidis, in conversation with Robel Afeworki Abay, Humboldt University, Berlin, DE

Workshop: Access Sparks: incendiary emails for change-making, within CONFIGURE-ABLE INFRASTRUCTURES, NEoN Digital Arts, Dundee, UK

Workshop: Accessibility in Cultural and Artistic Production & Sparking up Accessibility: Institutional practices towards Disability Justice, Center for Contemporary Culture Barcelona, CCCB. Barcelona, ES

Article: 'Nothing Without Us: Anti-Ableist Cultural Practices Now!'

Presentation: “Oracles and Rituals. How to deal with the failure of antidiscrimination policies in institutions” with members of Sickness Affinity Group, DOING ACCESS Kolloquium, Humboldt University, Berlin, DE

Presentation: 'Research Infrastructures: On Public and Collective Research Practices', Het Nieuwe Instituut, March 2022. Presentation at 55:28

Workshop: 'Shapeshifting Dreams: Practicing Towards Accessible Institutions', with Feminist Hack Meetings, Varia, Rotterdam, NL