Wow! So much going on this year. High fives to Jennison Asuncion and Joe Devon for starting the Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) bandwagon five years ago...it has become a global parade, a celebration of the work of the community and a hand up for those just getting started - we love it!
Big favorites around here are the just released Web Accessibility Perspectives, a series of videos from W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative. With humor and brevity, the videos demonstrate the barriers caused by inaccessible web pages both for persons with disabilities and for other users. Videos lead you right to a list of tips and resources for addressing and fixing barriers once you learn to identify them. On GAAD or anytime, check out the WAI Web Perspectives videos and resources to experience accessibility from the perspective of persons with disabilities and learn more about creating accessible websites.
Our own contribution to the festivities comes from our AccessWorks program. AccessWorks is a database of users with disabilities who can test your website for accessibility from remote locations. The platform was developed by Knowbility and Loop11 to help include users with disabilities in remote usability testing. We are pleased to provide this service for free for up to four users - only on GAAD - May 19. Use the Loop11 signup form and select the Knowbility database and up to four users with disabilities will report on the accessibility of your website
Here in our hometown of Austin, Razorfish hosts an Accessibility Meetup every month. Tomorrow is a special one and we will be there to help celebrate two years of the group along with five years of GAAD. Viva!
It wouldn't be GAAD without the stellar lineup of experts who feed our minds and our souls round the clock supporting accessibility practice one hour at a time. It's Inclusive Design 24 (#ID24) and is 24 hours of free online accessibility talks, hosted by The Paciello Group in celebration of the day.
And those are just a tiny fraction of the celebrations and gathering and demonstrations all over the world that highlight the glory of web accessibility, helping the web reach its full potential by making sure everyone is included.
What are your favorite events?