GAAD 2016: Raising Awareness About Accessibility

Today is the 5th annual Global Awareness Accessibility Day. The purpose of this day “is to get people talking, thinking and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) accessibility and users with different disabilities.” Who is GAAD for?

The target audience of GAAD is the design, development, usability, and related communities who build, shape, fund and influence technology and its use. While people may be interested in the topic of making technology accessible and usable by persons with disabilities, the reality is that they often do not know how or where to start. Awareness comes first. Read the blog post by Joe Devon that inspired GAAD.

Although not mentioned above, the education community should also consider themselves part of the target audience.

• Several different public events are taking place, both online and in person.
• People are encouraged to “experience accessibility first-hand” for an hour, relying solely upon the technologies and strategies that people with different disabilities use with digital resources.

To learn more about Global Accessibility Awareness Day

• Visit the project web site,
• Follow @gbla11yday on Twitter.
• Join their Facebook page,

How about you? Do you have any plan to observe this day? Alternately, what efforts are underway where you work aimed at addressing accessibility in digital environments for people with different disabilities? Let us know in the comments.

[CC-licensed Flickr photo by FutUnBeidl]