ACCESS SERVER

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.

More information about the project can be found on MELT’s website www.meltionary.com/accessserver.html.

To read more about the project MELT has published a paper in the academic journal, First Monday. ‘This feature has been disabled: Critical intersections of disability and information studies’ Co-edited by Gracen Brilmyer and Crystal Lee. MELT (Ren Loren Britton and Iz Paehr). (2023). ACCESS SERVER: Dreaming, practicing and making access. First Monday, 28(1). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v28i1.12908. To read the paper please click here.