In a world of rapidly advancing technology it’s crucial to ensure companies and organizations are doing their best to make digital developments accessible to everyone.
While browsing the internet, catching up on social media, or texting on mobile devices might seem like second nature to some, accessibility-related barriers prevent millions of people with disabilities from easily using basic forms of technology and, in some cases, even discourage them from going online.
In 2012, Global Accessibility Awareness Day was launched to help highlight the need for increased digital accessibility.
In recent years we've seen some amazing action taken — from the creation of virtual marches, which give those with physical disabilities a place to protest online, to more advanced social media tools, like Facebook's face recognition and automatic alt-text tools, which help blind users and people with low vision better identify posts and people in photographs. But there's still a lot of room for improvement when it comes to disability inclusion.
Approximately 10 percent of the world’s population have a disability, according to the United Nations, which means around 650 million people are faced with daily challenges when using digital devices. Here's everything you need to know about the yearly GAAD celebration.
What is Global Accessibility Awareness Day?
The Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is a day dedicated to celebrating existing digital accessibility efforts, and also fostering conversations on the importance of inclusion to inspire further action amongst designers, developers, and tech leaders.
GAAD, celebrated on May 17 this year, is held annually on the third Thursday of May. 2018 will mark the seventh year it's being observed worldwide.
What inspired this globally recognized day?
This may come as a surprise, but Global Accessibility Awareness Day was inspired by a single blog post written by Los Angeles-based web developer, Joe Devon, back in 2011.
The post, titled "CHALLENGE: Accessibility know-how needs to go mainstream with developers. NOW," was a bold call to action in which Devon brought attention to the lack of readily available information about online accessibility.