Every year, people from all around the world gather to celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day, and this year is no exception. I’ve noticed that many of the events are targetted at professionals who want to learn more about accessibility and people who are already involved in accessibility and inclusion work, and while these events are totally awesome, I’ve received questions about how children and students of all ages can learn about accessibility and inclusion in a positive and practical way. Here are my tips and free/low-cost activity ideas for how students can celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day, written for students of all ages and skill levels.
Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is an annual celebration of all things related to digital accessibility and inclusion that is held on the third Thursday in May. Companies of all sizes, accessibility groups, and individuals come together to host and attend events in online and physical spaces to learn more about how people with disabilities access digital content and other products, as well as advocate for the importance of accessible and inclusive design. Since over one billion people worldwide have some form of disability that may impact how they use technology, it’s more important than ever to invest in accessibility and work to remove barriers for people with disabilities.
I never heard the phrase “assistive technology” until I was in high school, and since then I have made it part of my mission to be able to educate as many people as I can about how assistive technology can be used to help people with disabilities, especially people with low vision like me. I’ve put together a list of common assistive technology terms for low vision, and encourage others to learn about different assistive technology tools and technologies for other disabilities to increase awareness and help to normalize using them.
66% of website home pages do not contain alt text or image descriptions, which means that screen reader users or other users with visual impairments would have no idea what is in an image. An even larger number of images on social media do not contain alt text, or contain incorrect/insufficient alt text that is automatically generated. By taking the time to learn how to write alt text and image descriptions, users can ensure that images and gifs are accessible to people with visual impairments.
One of my favorite parts about studying assistive technology is being able to reimagine everyday objects and technology tools as tools that can be used to help people with disabilities to be successful. I’ve seen lots of students over the years that have come up with awesome accessibility and assistive technology-themed projects that capture the same ideas of using existing tools to help others with disabilities. A lot of fantastic assistive technology tools were invented by people who were looking to solve a problem using the tools that they had available and have gone on to positively impact the lives of many people with disabilities.
Over the years, there has been an explosion of content on accessibility-related issues and topics in the form of blogs, news stories, online articles, TV shows, and more. Accessibility intersects with everything, and I’ve seen firsthand how digital accessibility can impact how I use a lot of different products and services as a person with low vision- even unexpected things like using a soda machine, attending a play, and using a calculator.
One of my favorite accessibility-related tools is audio description, because it tells me about visual content that I wouldn’t be able to see otherwise. While it may not be as mainstream as captioning, audio description is everywhere from streaming services to online videos and is tremendously helpful for viewers with visual impairments or others who want to listen to videos instead of watching them.
It’s important to know how to create accessible documents and presentations, as people who are reading or viewing different types of content may not explicitly identify as having a disability or needing items in an accessible format. For this reason, it is helpful to get into the practice of adding alt text, structuring documents, and making content available in multiple formats for people who need it.
I love getting to celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day every year, and I’m looking forward to attending several different online events and learning new things from industry leaders and others in the field. I hope this post on celebrating GAAD with students is helpful for parents or teachers who want to get kids interested in accessibility!
By Veronica Lewis/Veronica With Four Eyes, www.veroniiiica.com
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