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Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) 2024

April 10, 2024
Accessibility News

Thursday, May 16, 2024 marks the 13th Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). GAAD aims to get people talking, thinking, and learning about digital accessibility and the roughly 1 billion people it affects. It takes places on the 3rd Thursday of May every year.

GAAD’s Origins

The idea of a Global Accessibility Awareness Day came from a blog post written in 2011 by a Los Angeles based web developer by the name of Joe Devon. In his post, Joe talks about the lack of knowledge surrounding digital accessibility, including his own, and his mission to fill this gap. Jennison Asuncion, an accessibility professional from Toronto, stumbled upon Joe’s blog post on Twitter and reached out to join forces in making GAAD a reality. You can read Joe’s original blog post here.

In 2021, Joe and Jennison launched the GAAD foundation, a non-profit organisation whose mission is to “disrupt the culture of technology and digital product development to include accessibility as a core requirement”.

Getting involved

You can get involved in Global Accessibility Awareness Day by:

  • Attending in-person, virtual, or private events.
  • Hosting your own events.
  • Participating in activities, initiatives, or projects.

For those in the UK and Ireland, Nomensa are hosting a free online conference event from the 14th-16th May. This event, called ‘Virtua11y’ will discuss best practices, the latest thinking, and the future of accessibility. Interested? Find your tickets here.

Want to make a more direct impact? Consider writing alt text for images, captioning a video, or composing a transcript. You can also write and share blog posts on the topic to spread awareness.

GAAD’s website has a handy resources section to help you further your accessibility knowledge. It includes guides on accessibility resources for Google and Microsoft, tools to help improve your own website accessibility, and learning resources from Microsoft and Adaptech.

Want to improve your website’s accessibility?

Here at Fairness we offer comprehensive accessibility consulting designed to provide organisations with ongoing advice, guidance, and support to ensure sustained compliance with accessibility regulations. We offer support with:

  • Regulatory Compliance.
  • Technology and Design Trends.
  • User Feedback Analysis.
  • Policy and Process Integration.
  • Customised Training Programmes.

Sound useful? Get in contact with one of our specialists today.