Hannah Ackermans researches disability and accessibility within electronic literature. Electronic literature authors are known for using technology in counterintuitive ways, even using glitches or bugs as key narrative devices. Moreover, electronic literature tends to be multimodal, including different medial modes such as text, visuals, audio input and output to create works. I argue that electronic literature’s commitment to formal experimentation is already the perfect place to consider the effects of multimodality on different readers—if only we are willing to decenter the able-bodied reader in our scholarly and creative practice.

Beyond the more narrow scope of this project, Ackermans writes about the intersection between disability, digital culture, and the environment. This includes an exploration of the digital practices associated with Norwegian Sign Language poetry, what we can learn from disabled people to address the climate crisis, and how electronic literature about illness can transform our lives.

Hannah Ackermans is the current project coordinator of the Consortium on Electronic Literature (CELL). CELL is a cross-database collaboration in the field of electronic literature. Currently, CELL is hosted and led by the Center for Digital Narrative (CDN) at the University of Bergen, Norway, in collaboration with all member databases.

The centerpiece of CELL is The Index, which gives access to an expansive collection of records across electronic literature databases through one Wikibase. It is a peer-reviewed collection of Wikidata items. The Index makes the data of individual databases more available to the electronic literature community and the public. This in turn gives the individual databases a larger readership.

In addition to the Index, CELL also encourages further collaboration among electronic literature scholars. CELL has a quarterly newsletter to which all members can contribute to share their events, achievements and requests with the wider community. CELL organizes events and roundtalbes to communicate with its members and prospective members about current projects and future strategy. We also offer to host a Wikibase environment for working groups who would like to create a database but do not have the support for the technical structure.

Hannah Ackermans is the currect coordinator of the Living Glossary of Digital Narrative (LGDN), an online terminology base for disciplines related to the crafting and study of digital narrative. The LGDN is a growing resource, with new entries being published on a regular basis. As such, it adapts to and reflects evolving terminology use across multiple fields. The LGDN collects multiple meanings of a singular term in one entry, providing a cohesive overview of how a term is employed across different disciplines. This shared vocabulary will aid in the building of a unified community, allowing for productive discussion both within and across disciplines.