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Citrus Con 2023 Panel Slides

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Citrus Con 2023 Panel Slides - Text only

Slide 1

Towards a More Accessible Fandom: Making your BL creations more accessible on the web

  • Image 1: half an orange slice
  • Image 2: skateboard emoji with orange wheels
  • Image 3: accessibility icon in orange with a stick person with arms and legs outstretched in the middle

Slide 2

Link to slides

Slide 3

Introduction

  • Name: Kai, they/them pronouns

    • I make stuff…sometimes it’s art, streaming, zines

  • Accessibility advocate

    • I don’t consider myself a person with a disability
    • Not an expert

  • Really into a skateboarding anime called SK8 the Infinity

    • Slides may contain slight spoilers

  • If you have gone through the things I’m going to talk about today, maybe comment in the chat if you’re comfortable sharing your experience

  • Image: A minilogo brand skateboard strapped to a skateboard backpack. The design features a heart stabbed with swords floating above a golden chrysanthemum. The ribbon inscription reads “Til death us do part”

Slide 4

Summary

Accessibility touches on many parts of the fandom experience, and affects everyone, including fans with disabilities.

If you’re new to it and just starting now, making things more accessible won’t be perfect. Every little bit helps make the fandom space more accessible and inclusive for everyone.

  • Image 1: A person wearing glasses and cradling a baby
  • Image 2: A person with one arm in a sling
  • Image 3: A person with glasses holding a laptop
  • Image 4: A person with glasses, scarf, and a cane outstretched in front of them
  • Image 5: A person using an electric wheelchair

Slide 5

Why accessibility?

  • There are lots of different ways to participate in fandom spaces
  • There are many meeting places of fans from all over
    • Discord, in-person events, social media
  • There are so many things to do and participate in! Bangs! Exchanges! Zines!
  • Fandom “moments”

But what happens when some people are accidentally excluded?

  • Image: I Hear the Sunspot manga cover by Yuki Fumino from One Peace Books featuring the love main boys love pairing looking at each other on a sun dappled set of stone stairs

Slide 6

Reasons for making this panel

BL Metamorphosis by Kaori Tsurutani published in English by Seven Seas

  • Image: BL metamorphosis volume 2 cover with story and art by Kaori Tsurutani. The cover features a teenager with a ponytail and a older lady with white hair and glasses standing together and reading a guidebook together outside of a building with the words “Sunshine City” on it

Slide 7

Models of disability

There are 3 main models of disability. Each model addresses the perceived causes of disability, appropriate responses, and deeper meanings.

  • Moral model
  • Medical model
  • Social model

Conceptualizing disability: Three models of disability

  • Image: accessibility icon in orange with a stick person with arms and legs outstretched in the middle

Slide 8

What is accessibility?

Accessibility addresses discriminatory aspects related to equivalent user experience for people with disabilities.

Slide 9

Fandom activities

  • Zines

  • Bangs & exchanges

  • Streaming

  • Art, writing

  • Sharing what you’ve been up to on social media

  • Recommending to everyone your favorite new boys’ love comic

  • Websites & shops

  • Going to the con, etc.

  • Image: Oguie from the anime Genshiken drawing a black marker. She has black hair a cute concentrating face. Groups of people are behind her, but out of focus.

Slide 10

Examples of accessibility

  • Your friends are having a shouting match about their favorite pairing headcanons

  • Shopping for merch, but you have a migraine

  • Going to the convention with your cosplay, and you’re pulling your luggage over the curb

  • Playing a new game, and you change the size of the text

  • Image 1: Perfect Fit manga cover by thanat. A dark-haired man with short black hair, glasses, and a devilish grin leans over a shorter character with blonde hair. The blonde hair character has a surprised expression on his face.

  • Image 2: Ogi’s Summer Break volume 1 cover by koikawa from Tokyopop. The cover features two characters. The one of the left has black hair and is holding an ice cream in one hand, and white cane in the other. The character on the left is looking shyly at the other person and is wearing a skirt.

  • Image 3: After We Gazed at the Starry Sky manga cover by Bisco Kida featuring the lead characters under a starry sky. The character with pink hair is being carried in the arms of the character with short black hair, and they are happy together. A wheelchair is in the foreground.

  • Image 4: DRAMAtical Murder game cover featuring a variety of images of the male love interests from the BL game. The main character, Aoba, stands in the middle with light blue hair and large futuristic headphones.

Slide 11

Examples

  • New audio or drama CD that comes with lyrics

  • Sharing what you’ve been up to on social media

  • Catching up on some manga or anime before you get spoiled, but you have to be quiet

  • Image 1: Given 2 audio CD cover featuring the character Mafuyu next to a white microphone. He has a sad expression.

  • Image 2: A pixel art style version of the teenager version of Adam from the anime SK8 the Infinity. He is wearing a hood, mask, and is carrying a skateboard under one arm.

  • Image 3: Tadashi and Ainosuke puppet charms under the cherry blossoms

Slide 12

But what does all this have to do with fandom?

  • Things that I’ve noticed people have been doing, but aren’t aware that it’s inaccessible

  • Preparing for the future you, or working towards including more current fans

  • Something that might come across as a minor annoyance might be a major blocker to someone else (Example: Your Interactive Makes Me Sick)

  • Image: Mafuyu and Ritsuka from the anime given are looking one with surprised expressions as their band blonde bandmates posture with sparkles.

Slide 13

Story time

  • Image: Reki, a red-head from SK8 the Infinity, looks sadly at his arm in a cast and sling. The subtitle reads: “They said two weeks to full recovery.”

Slide 14

  • Image: Cherry, on the left, and Shadow, on the right chat around a table next to a sunny window. They are seated in wheelchairs, where Cherry’s wheelchair has a futuristic design in black and purple. The subtitle reads: “ADAM nominated him.”

Slide 15

Story time

  • Image 1: Portrait of the panelist panting with wild hair, large glasses, an arm in a sling, and a pen in the other. They are standing behind a line that is labelled 2023. “We made it. Holy shit.”
  • Image 2: Closeup of a skateboard with the design of Adam’s skateboard, featuring a heart pierced by swords on a large golden chrysanthemum. The ribbon reads “Till death us do part.”
  • Image 3: Portrait photo taken from above a skateboard where black kneepads and the shadow of the photo-taker are visible on the skatepark floor.

Slide 16

Being accessible isn’t anti-fun

  • Image: Vash the Stampede from the anime Trigun Stampede holds his hands up with a shocked expression. He has short blonde hair, a large red coat, and a bionic left arm.

Slide 17

Ways that platforms cause exclusion

  • Ignorance & ableism

  • Platforms that don’t help users that want to do the right thing or launch without it

  • Image: Threads is getting some useful new features news article

Slide 18

Emojis

Simple to use and understand, but might not always reflect the full context or convey the full meaning

  • Image 1: Heart hands emoji where the 4 fingers on each hand, and the thumbs on each hand are touching to form the shape of a heart in the negative space
  • Image 2: Throbbing heart emoji
  • Image 3: Peach emoji
  • Image 4: Eggplant emoji
  • Image 5: Cherry blossom emoji
  • Image 6: Green tea emoji

Slide 19

Examples of emojis gone wrong

triangular flag on post emoji

  • Image: triangular flag on post emoji times 3

Slide 20

Examples of emojis gone wrong

Post from Comic Market Committee (International) (@comiket_intl) for International Cat Day

  • Good use of hashtag capitalization

  • But what does this mean?

  • Image: Twitter post from Comic Market Committee (International) featuring a block of emoji cats. The yellow and black cats are alternating to form the numbers “102.” Beneath the cat emoji is the hashtag #InternationalCatDay

Slide 21

Make it bigger 👏

  • Image: Closeup of a bunny tail attached to a pair of tight pants with a hand cursor hovering over a butt cheek

Slide 22

Color contrast

  • Picking themes with enough size difference and colour contrast

  • Avoid busy backgrounds that interfere with text

  • Dark mode is an accessibility feature, but sometimes the contrast is reduced so it’s hard to read

  • Image: My Awesome Fanfic title in white over a light pink background. A monochrome butterfly covers up the “A” in “Awesome”

Slide 23

What is alternative text (alt text)?

Alternative text is a textual substitute for non-text content in web pages. Context matters. This is text for screen reader users and search engines.

Slide 24

Alt text

Alternative text should:

  • Be informative and concise
  • Most important information at the front
  • Images of text should contain the alt text

One possible example: “Char and Amuro of the Mobile Suit Gundam anime are fighting in a field. Amuro is on top of Char with an angry expression. They are pulling at each other’s suits in a homoerotic way.”

  • Image: Char and Amuro of the Mobile Suit Gundam anime are fighting in a field. Amuro is on top of Char with an angry expression. They are pulling at each other’s suits in a homoerotic way.

Slide 25

Not all screen reader users are blind

  • Read aloud apps

  • Focus or reading issues

  • Image 1: Archive of Our Own logo

  • Image 2: Android accessibility icon

  • Image 3: @Voice app settings

Slide 26

Ending the subs vs dubs debate for all the bitches and bros and non-binary hoes

  • Image: Adam from the anime SK8 the Infinity in profile while grinning. He has wild blue hair, a mask over his eyes, and a red matador outfit on

Slide 27

You need both

  • Image: Ainosuke from the anime SK8 the Infinity smiles gently while standing next to a sunny window. He has light blue hair, wild eyebrows, and red eyes.

Slide 28

Conventions & events

  • Use the microphone, repeat the question

    • Captions?

  • Location

  • Accessibility policies

  • Websites

  • Image 1: Anime convention hall

  • Image 2: Tadashi and Ainosuke puppet charms seated on a soft black sofa. Tadashi has a little leash attached to his collar, and Ainosuke is holding the end of the leash.

  • Image 3: Miyano from the anime Sasaki and Miyano wearing a mask. He has black hair and brown eyes.

Slide 29

Speaking up even if you might not need it (right now)

  • Most people want to do the right thing

  • Change shouldn’t be motivated by fear

  • Image: The character Cherry from the anime SK8 the Infinity asleep on a table. he has bandages around his head and in his face. On the table next to him is an empty wine glass.

Slide 30

Hopes for the future

  • Discord captions, when

  • Accessibility as default

  • More online or hybrid cons(!)

  • More tools where you don’t have to sacrifice privacy for community, and is built with accessibility first

  • Image 1: Idolish7 Beyond the Period film poster featuring the idol characters of Idolish7 under a large tree

  • Image 2: Kaji from the anime Given flashes a thumbs up with a smile. He has short blonde hair and a lip piercing.

Slide 31

Thanks!

Image: The characters Langa and Reki from the anime Sk8 the Infinity smiling at each other and doing their unique loose fist bump under a starry sky.

Slide 32

Resources

Accessibility is about people, and the service of people with disabilities. It’s not about checklists, but checklists can help to organize what needs to be done.

Slide 33

Image sources

Slide 34

Image sources continued

Slide 35

There is no such thing as auto-accessibility

There is no such thing as auto-accessibility or accessibility that can be solved with one line of code. Be very wary if anyone promises this.

Overlay factsheet: people with disabilities have stated they have major issues with overlays. You can read about the issues with overlays in their own words.

  • Image: Shirotani and Kurose from the manga Ten Count with their faces close together. Kurose, with the dark hair, is on top pulling on Shirotani’s clothes. Shirotani has his hands laced together in front of his mouth, blocking Kurose.