Presented by: San Francisco State University’s Comic Studies Department, The Program for Vision Impairments, and the Longmore Institute on Disability.

Sponsored by: Amazon

When: Thursday, August 12, 9 am PT – 4:15 pm PT, full agenda available here.

Free to attend, ASL, Live CART, and audio description provided, register now at: Tinyurl.com/AdaptingComics

Comics are currently a dominant force in popular culture, while simultaneously being increasingly recognized as a significant means for supporting literacy and a valuable tool for education in the classroom. Stories told in their pages often promote diversity and chronicle the lives of the marginalized, and yet the form itself completely leaves out the visually impaired audience. With the mass popularity of comics, the industry is in dire need to find ways and set stand standards to create better access to comics for blind and low vision
readers.

Join us for a one-day, free, virtual public international symposium in August 2021 to explore the many tactics for developing greater access in comics, from audio description to tactile- and haptic-based emerging technologies. The voices of blind experts will be central, supporting the disability rights slogan of “Nothing About Us Without Us,” in dialogue with comic artists and access innovators with and without vision impairments.

Agenda

9-9:30am PT. Welcome and Keynote
9:30-10:45am PT. Panel 1, Audio Approaches to Accessible Comics
11am-12:15pm PT. Panel 2, Tactile Approaches (2.5D and 3D) to Accessible Comics
12:15pm-1pm PT. Lunch!
1pm-2:15pm PT. Panel 3, Emerging Technologies: Haptics and Screen-Based Approaches
2:30-3:45pm PT. Panel 4, Depictions of Blindness in Comics
3:45-4:15pm PT. Keynote and Closing

Graphic flyer attached. For the audio version of the flyer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/ComicsAudioFlyer