Held on the third Thursday of May every year, it’s a day where we pull together as an accessibility community to get people thinking and talking about how we can make the web more accessible for everybody in the world.
The day was first observed ten years ago, and actually came about as a result of a single blog post by just one man – a then web developer by the name of Joe Devon. It voiced a concern that many people with web-based accessibility issues had been thinking for some time – that accessibility seemed low on the list of important things to consider when creating something online, and how drastically this needed to change.
Jennison Asuncion, a digital accessibility professional from Toronto discovered Joe’s blog by accident, and after reading it, contacted the author via Twitter. They joined forced and combined their networking power to create Global Accessibility Awareness Day, to really bring the idea of online accessibility to the forefront of the digital conversation.
The Global Accessibility Awareness Day homepage breaks down some disconcerting statistics. According to WebAIM, in 2020 98.1% of homepages had at least one major failure when examined alongside the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines that are designed to make the online experience inclusive for everyone. The average number of accessibility failures per homepage was a staggering 60.9! These could be anything from low contrast text to missing alt image text, empty links, missing form input labels and missing document language – there are lots of ways that a webpage might be underserving people with physical disabilities and neurodiversities alike.
Thinking critically about how our web design holds up when we’re talking accessibility is an important part of the design process. It removes barriers to information, products and connection with so many other people around the globe, and it’s a vital part of making sure that the internet is a virtual place that allows everybody to feel comfortable and do what they have to do. The Global Accessibility Awareness Day website has a number of ways that you can get involved, from attending events to participating in projects or awareness-boosting activities that promote their message of accessibility for all online.
The internet is a fantastic resource and a place where everybody should be able to learn and connect – the accessibility conversation is a pertinent and vital one, and positive change is happening every day due to a dedicated global community of accessibility champions. You can find out more about what Global Accessibility Awareness Day at their website, and if you’re a creative sort, don’t forget to check out Succeed With Dyslexia’s own blog post on what you can do to make your own web design more accessible for people with dyslexia!