a note on access

sky cubacub

I am Sky Cubacub, the creator of Rebirth Garments, a clothing line for queer and trans disabled folx of all sizes and ages, the writer of “Radical Visibility: A QueerCrip Dress Reform Movement Manifesto” and just femme & dandy's “cancel & gretel” editor! I will share my identities with you all so that you understand where I’m coming from and who is in charge of accessibility for this awesome magazine! I am queer, nonbinary xenogender, and I use they/them/their and xe/xem/xyr pronouns. I’m half Filipinx-American and half white, and I am almost 30 years old. I have non-apparent disabilities including lifelong anxiety, panic disorder, depression with a still undiagnosed developed stomach disorder I acquired later in life, C-PTSD (I am a survivor of DV), and newly diagnosed Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that developed after having Mono.

I wrote all the descriptions for the images and video that we’ve included with volume 01, with assistance from my Rebirth Garments employee Morgan Hill, a nonbinary corsetier and fashion designer you can find at @mayhemmemoirs on Instagram. All work in this issue can be found on our website in plain text with image and audio descriptions and captioning.

Bull in a China Closet : excerpts, by rick h m, has an option to watch with an added audio description track, which is performed by me. A note about this video: the lighting effects utilized in the first portion (towards the end when there is a subtle strobe effect) might cause migraines for migraine-prone individuals, and also could induce seizures. In the audio descriptive version, I give a verbal warning before the strobing happens and say when that effect is no longer being used by the video!

Image descriptions and audio descriptions are always incomplete because you can endlessly describe anything. As this is a fashion-focused magazine, I chose to center the clothing and accessories! If you are interested in learning how to make internet content accessible, follow my friend Alex Chen on Instagram. You can also check out the Alt Text as Poetry project, a collaboration between artists Bojana Coklyat and Shannon Finnegan, supported by Eyebeam and the Disability Visibility Project.

Access can always be improved, so please contact us to request specific accessibility accommodations you need, and I will do my best to make it happen!