AbilityNet shares expertise on Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2020
Annie Mannion | 18 May 2020
Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) focuses on digital access and inclusion for the more than one billion people around the world living with disabilities and impairments. It is marked annually on the third Thursday of May, with this year's activities mainly happening on Thursday 21st May.
AbilityNet is proud to have been involved in GAAD since it began 9 years ago. It's a valuable way to loudly champion accessibility and get people thinking about how technology can help transform the lives of disabled people.
Here’s a brief overview of some of the events the AbilityNet team is involved in for Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2020.
Accessibility Anti-Patterns
Thursday 21 May, 6:30PM (BST), online
Dafydd Henke-Reed, Principal Accessibility and Usability Consultant with AbilityNet will be speaking at the UK Chapter of the UXPA (User Experience Professionals’ Association) about Accessibility Anti-Patterns.
When developing for the web, even with the best intentions, accessibility can become a vortex of inelegant code, functionality that does not degrade gracefully, and localisation nightmares. Dafydd's talk will discuss what happens when accessibility goes wrong. It will "provide war-stories covering immense and monstrous websites, and they got stuck in digital swamps."
Attendees will gain an understanding about how to promote productive accessibility, as well as highlight the common pitfalls to avoid.
Get your free tickets for the online event via Eventbrite >>
Join us for our 9th #GlobalAccessibilityAwarenessDay (#GAAD)! This year we have an evening with:
— UXPA UK (@UXPAUK) May 18, 2020
— Dafydd Henke-Reed (@AbilityNet)
— @GarethFW and @AccessibilityC3 (@BBC)
Thu. 21 May at 18.30 via Zoom. Free tickets and details:https://t.co/vZ8qdYq0Bz pic.twitter.com/bZl5MURgME
Making essential digital communications accessible and inclusive
Thursday 21 May, 2-3 PM, online
Robin Christopherson, MBE Head of Digital Inclusion at AbilityNet, will be joining Texthelp and Radley Yeldar for a webinar on inclusive digital communications. He'll look at the case for building accessible and inclusive websites and digital campaigns and advice on how to do it.
If you are working to improve your digital comms, boost your brand reputation, and build more inclusive marketing and digital experiences please register to attend live, or to receive the recording/slides.
RNIB Connect Radio GAAD 2020 special
At 1pm on 21 May, RNIB Connect Radio will host a GAAD special with Robin Christopherson, Steven Scott and Robin Spinks. Tune in to the radio live, and access the podcast recording afterwards.
Accessibility & Digital Inclusion Virtual Summit on 22 May 2020
Friday 22 May, 9:00 AM - 01:30 PM (BST)
Robin Christopherson, AbilityNet's Head of Digital Inclusion will be speaking alongside Microsoft, Software One, Scope and Bank of Ireland, about digital transformation.
Robin's session will run from 11.40 AM – 12.00 PM and cover 'Technology – the power and the promise'
Follow the session online on Twitter via @SoftwareONEUK @SoftwareONEIre, using the hashtag #SW1nclusion
Spreading the word
Our team will be sharing GAAD links across social media this week, so check out AbilityNet on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
How can you get involved in GAAD?
- Check out the list of virtual and in person GAAD 2020 events
- See ideas on the GAAD website to help boost your digital accessibility
- Have your website professionally assessed by a digital accessibility expert
