I don't know when this happened (or it may have just always been there but I never noticed) but Weebly now has an Alt Text feature that allows you to easily write image descriptions on any images on your website! This is very cool, for a couple of reasons.
The first, less important reason, is that if your alt text contains keywords, your image may be found by these keywords, but the normal description doesn't have to include them. It could help images or entire websites get a little bit more exposure. However, what's even better is the second reason: accessibility. Alt text will be read by screen readers, so people who are blind or have any sight problems who use screen readers (programs that will read online text to them) can also understand what is going on in the image. This is something that a lot of people never even think about when creating content, so I am very glad that weebly has brought this technology to an easy to edit place on images (the same place you would click in order to write a regular caption). I learned a lot about this as I've been doing fan art for a podcast, because as a completely auditory medium, there's more hard of seeing people in the audience since it is a media form that is more accessible to them, and so many people in the community have been encouraging more image descriptions. There are people who aren't completely blind who can definitely enjoy visual art, but may just need a little bit of extra description in order to figure out what they're looking at. For instance, telling someone who sees a blob in the middle of the screen, "hey, that's a face!" might clarify it enough for them to be able to see the face you drew, much like how when we look at clouds, if someone suggests what the cloud looks like, it becomes much easier to see. If you include an important image or diagram that is crucial to understanding a blog post, an image description means that there is a better chance that people who have trouble seeing can still follow. It's also helpful if you took a screenshot of some text to transcribe it to alt text, because a screen reader wouldn't be able to read that. Personally, I think, from both a business and humanitarian standpoint, the more people who can enjoy your content, the better, so even if this feature would only help a few people, it's still very worth it to use. Of course, it is a bit more work, but image descriptions should be less than 125 words (this is so that people with screen readers don't have to sit there for a long time as each image is being described) so it shouldn't actually take that long, and it's a really great thing to do.
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I'm writing this post 1/14/19, but it will be posted on 1/16 because that's the day that I'm actually presenting this work to the whole faculty and I didn't want any spoilers (Hi Mr. B). So I've been one of the officers of the GSA (Gender Sexuality Alliance, or Gay Straight Alliance) at school this year, and another club was created called the Student Equity Leadership Team. I've worked a lot with the latter this year, and that has lead up to what I'm about to do in two days: present to the entire school faculty about respecting transgender student's pronouns. As a semi-closeted trans/nonbinary kid who is only closeted because they're too scared to come out (ie not because of any danger, just fear of judgement) it's a little terrifying to know that in less than 48 hours, I will have spoken to over 100 people about respecting trans kids. However, it's also incredibly exciting to know that I'll (hopefully) be impacting future trans students at school, hopefully for the better. Anyways, in order to do this, I also made a handout in the form of a zine (a small booklet), and it was a lot like making infographics, so I'm counting it as art/graphic design for the purposes of this post. We wanted to have a handout that wasn't just another piece of paper, but that was still something that teachers could keep for future reference. It was kind of scary to make, because whenever you speak on behalf of a community, you don't want to get things wrong. The artistic aspects were fun to make though, and I think that they make the document much more interesting, especially now that it's in small booklet form on lavender paper. I want to open this post up to the larger description of activism in art though. While DSA is a very liberal school, there are definitely places where this zine - and any art with an activism undertone - could be considered propaganda, and that's another reason that it's so scary to create in this way: I don't want to be seen as some extremist who is too serious about politics. This project has really helped me learn that you can create without coming off that way: sharing your opinion, even in a biased way, doesn't mean you're extreme, it just means that you have an opinion, something that you're totally allowed to have. Respecting trans people is something near and dear to my heart that affects me and my friends, I should be able to make art about it, and express my opinions about it without feeling overly political. I can't keep being so ashamed of who I am that I hide it from my creative work. Anyways, here's a digital copy of the zine. VR is typically associated with VR games - at least for people in the game design field - so I want to look into what else it can be used for. I've heard people use it to see places in a more immersive way, and in psych we talked about using it to face fears that might be too dangerous or expensive to face in real life. However, I want to see even more of the uses - or possible future uses - for the technology.
The first one I found that really interested me - from this website - was VR being used for physical therapy. While this one involves game-like exercises, basically it gives patients a more entertaining way to do therapy to help with motor function. This site also mentions VR being used to train astronauts how to use specialized equipment. These kinds of programs could also be used to train pilots or ship captains. It also discusses companies using VR to make and see prototypes for things like cars in a more immersive way, as well as providing as a good educational tool as there can be virtual museums and lessons. Another source mentions three other uses that I think are really cool. The first being training surgeons, which is pretty self explanatory and similar to training astronauts. The second is space exploration. The site mentions that of course this would mean somehow getting good video footage of space or being able to accurately map it somehow, but then anyone could be immersed in space. The final use it mentioned was to allow people with disabilities or certain conditions to experience things they might not be able to otherwise. For instance someone who had health risks that would prevent them from leaving home for very long could virtually visit different countries, or someone who can't walk can still travel places in VR. Basically, it seems like VR can be used for almost anything. Of course it wouldn't really make sense to put a 2D cartoon in VR, or use VR to completely replace actual surgical training, but for most fields it can be a useful tool. Training seems like an especially useful functionality, especially for high stress jobs like being in space or removing someone's kidney. Exploration of not only places on earth but possibly space is really cool, and could save people money on travel, or at least help them decide where to go. I think we will continue to find new ways to use VR as it becomes more accessible and more advanced, but it's really cool that we already have all of these ideas for how to use this technology. Some uses for VR (other than gaming) are:
In class, we are currently creating games based on Durham, and current local issues. We aren't very far in production yet, so I'm going to save talking more in depth about it for another post, but so far it is going well. Our game does not yet have a title, but it focuses on the issue of the Orange - Durham Light Rail, a proposed train system basically connected areas from Chapel Hill to Durham. Our game is going to be a rogue-like game where you have to build the track from one stop to another before running out of money, featuring Herman, a possessed ice cream cone, and Carl, a strange walnut character. I am the Production Manager and also work on narrative products as well as some of the 2D art.
However, what I want to talk about in this game is other Durham games, or even Durham content and Durham creators. This can be game companies of Durham or games that are set in Durham. I also want to look into games that are about current events. Both of these things are important as an aspiring game designer in Durham because it will let me learn more about the local game making community, which could be good for opportunities, as well as see what effect games can have on important issues. With just a quick google search for games set in Durham NC, very little relevant information comes up. Instead, gaming stores like Atomic Empire pop up, a list of books set in Durham (mostly history and basketball books), and even a kickstarter for a webseries set in Durham. It seems that there aren't any (easy to find) games set in Durham right now, which makes sense since we are just a random town. However, I still thought I would find something since the people of Durham seem pretty proud of "Bull City". Heck, I even have a Durham-themed comic book. The good news is, despite not making many games about Durham, there are many gaming companies with offices in Durham, many of which I got to see representatives from at ECGC last year. Insomniac Games is a pretty well known company around here, and they do a lot of work in VR games. Epic Games, who famously made Unreal Engine 4 also has an office here, and at ECGC I talked to many people who work there. They're also working towards more VR work and have made so many technological advances in the past few years to make VR better. And as I mentioned earlier, with places like Atomic Empire, it's obvious that there is a decent sized gaming culture here. More interesting to me are games that focus on current events or issues. I really am passionate about art as a form of activism, and such an immersive form of art and entertainment as a game seems like a great vessel for change. This article from NPR discusses the effectiveness of games in teaching messages. While the data is still coming in, I believe media of all forms does affect people greatly and I hope that I can create games that do affect people. I ended up playing one of the games mentioned in the article: The Cat in the Hijab. It lines up with my political views, so it didn't change my opinion or anything, but I appreciate the game. The message it tries to convey is about hate speech. I played through the game twice, trying to make the opposite choices each time, and I was a little dismayed to find that the choices made only really changed a few lines, so I felt as though it didn't teach anything about what outcomes different choices have. However, the best results did come from ignoring hate speech and sticking together with supportive people, so I do like the overall message it tried to get across. However, I think the people who need this message the most might not have played the game, possibly even just from looking at the title. So I think it's also important to remember that games don't have to be incredibly political to still make comments on important issues. As the NPR article above said, people like subtle messages better, and they're less likely to shut down moderate arguments than extreme ones. Games are a good starting point to get people thinking about issues, to make people more open minded and get the conversation going. Games like Skyrim have beggars and orphans, making players think about how to treat the poor, as well as big, open worlds with complex political climates, giving players a look into how different aspects of the world affect each other. Plague Inc. and Pandemic both teach valuable lessons about disease, the value of the CDC, and how the choices we make about travel and trade can affect health. These are examples of serious games that are still fun and subtle in their messages. Overall, I think games have a great potential for change, and I'm excited to be creating a game set in my hometown that could actually teach people about the light rail.
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AuthorHi, I'm Abi, a DSA student who likes games, drawing, writing, and acting. Archives
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