November 30, 2023 - Has it really been a full year since we wore our Blue Beanies? As we happily wear them again today, we look back on a year spent mission-focused while recovering from lost funding, staff attrition, and uncertain times. We are grateful to this vibrant community for the support you have shown and the encouragement to sustain our efforts to build a more inlusive digital world in which the access needs of disabled people are recognized and honored. As we end the year, please consider a gift to our year-end campaign. With your support, we will continue to provide community programs that improve the lives of millions of people every day.

Make YOUR gift today - thank you!

Web standards are key to accessibility

Knowbility was formed in 1999 with the purpose of ensuring that disabled people have equal access to technology opportunities. We were founded with web accessibility as our focus. As the Internet has expanded, so has our mission. We now refer to digital accessibility and apply the concepts to all digital communication including video, apps, ebooks, virtual reality, and more. A constant in our work has been the alignment of accessibility to web standards.

That’s why each year we join web designers and developers from across the globe in celebrating Blue Beanie Day. The correct use of web standards is a basic requirement of digital accessibility. Blue Beanie Day helps us to remember and helps others learn that when we follow web standards to achieve accessibility, we create web experiences that benefit all users. To see this illustrated quite clearly, check out the Perspective videos from W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative.

Jeffrey Zeldman is a leading proponent of web standards and an early promoter of Blue Beanie Day. I revisit this quote of Jeffrey's every year.

Good design IS accessible design

Dr. John Slatin was an early mentor who used the tag "Good design IS accessible design" on his email signature. This idea was further expanded by Ceasar McDowell in his TEDx talk Designing for the Margins. So while today we put on our blue hats to remind the world of the importance of following web standards, Knowbility spends every day with digital accessibility as the focus of our work.  

We hope you'll join us! 

Get Involved

To support our work and to learn more about how web standards support digital accessibility, here are some additional steps you can take:

  • Put on your Blue Beanie and tell folks why you wear it.
  • Send your Blue Beanie photo to communications@knowbility.org and we'll add it to our gallery
  • Take classes from our Learning Center. The class Authoring Accessible Content by Emily Lewis is located in Wordpress for Content Authors.
  • Volunteer and/or donate to support Knowbiltiy community programs. Our year end fundraiser is in full swing!

Accessibility is a team sport; together we can build an inclusive digital world. Thanks for your commitment.