Global Accessibility Awareness Day is an awareness day focusing on digital access and inclusion for the more than one billionpeople with disabilities and impairments. It is marked annually on the third Thursday of May. Upcoming GAAD events will be celebrated on:
In 2018, in addition to a number of virtual events marking GAAD, there were events open to the public in at least nineteen countries on six continents. According to the Global Accessibility Awareness Day website, "The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access/inclusion and people with different disabilities." Local Global Accessibility Awareness Day events sometimes showcase how people with disabilities use the web and digital products using assistive technologies, or assist people creating technology products in taking into consideration the needs of certain disabilities. Global Accessibility Awareness Day launched in May 2012. It was inspired by a blog post by Los Angeles-based web developerJoe Devon. Devon worked with Jennison Asuncion, an accessibility professional from Toronto, to co-found GAAD.
Events
Examples of local Global Accessibility Awareness Day events include:
Since 2012 the , led by Joseph O’Connor has organized a GAAD event.
Minnesota IT Services has encouraged employees to perform their jobs for 15 minutes without using a mouse.
In 2015, a one day conference was hosted in Ottawa by OpenConcept Consulting, to celebrate GAAD.
In 2016, a one day conference was hosted by Carleton University and organized by , Ottawa's accessibility Meetup.
In 2017, Apple released a series of videos and organized a concert as part of a week-long series of events marking Global Accessibility Awareness Day.
In 2017, a GAAD event in Ottawa featured speakers from Carleton University, the Canadian government and the Ottawa area.
In 2018, there were a series of events planned in Hyderabad and Bangalore, India.
In 2018, an evening event was hosted in Ottawa by OpenConcept Consulting and we had a live chat with participants in Accessibility Twin Cities, who were also celebrating GAAD.
