One of the most important days in the accessibility calendar is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD).  Each year, on the third Thursday in May, GAAD helps to spread awareness of the importance of accessibility across the global digital, technology and usability community. This year’s GAAD is being held on the 21^st May.

As in previous years, Sitemorse will be running our ONE MILLION Page Giveaway throughout May - more on that when it launches on 1st May. 

What is GAAD?

GAAD was born out of social media exchanges between developers and accessibility experts who saw that much more action was needed in the field of accessibility.  They recognised that there was both a lack of awareness of the topic and also the specific knowledge of how to apply appropriate standards.

Each year GAAD has grown and we regard it as an important event in trying to drive improvements in accessibility across the world. Ultimately one day we hope we won’t need GAAD or it becomes more of a celebration of the progress we have made.

Inevitably this year’s GAAD will be overshadowed by the coronavirus crisis.  Despite this, it’s still important to mark GAAD and remember that the accessibility of digital channels is important.

Arguably it’s even more important with so many of us staying at home and being increasingly reliant on websites and apps. We need accessibility for everyone to be able to use technology across the entire population.

Make a commitment to improve

With GAAD coming up next month, we think this is a great time for digital marketing and communication teams to make a firm commitment to improve the accessibility of their website by the 21^st May.  

We suggest committing to the following three pledges:

1. Commit to prioritising accessibility of your website and other digital channels going forward
2. Start out on your journey and make real world improvements by the 21^st May. These can be modest or extensive, just do something that makes a difference.
3. Commit to a plan of action that will see you keep on improving over the months ahead.

If you’re in a position to announce that you’ve made progress by 21^st May then good for you.

If you haven’t improved the accessibility of your website for a while or it’s been on your “to do” list for too long, then this is a great opportunity. Even if you are making modest steps, it’s a start.

Why should you commit to improving accessibility?

To be honest, it’s difficult to find a coherent argument why you shouldn’t improve the accessibility of your website and related digital channels and apps:

• Depending on the sector you are in and in which country you’re based, compliance with accessibility standards is the law or exposes you to legal action
• It’s the right thing to do from a moral standpoint
• It helps enhance and protect your brand reputation
• It has commercial benefits, with a much larger proportions of society with accessibility issues, than many people realise
• It is better for usability, SEO and a whole range of other benefits.

How can I get started?

Getting started is much easier than people think. Three options are:

• Increasing the awareness of you and your team by leveraging the extensive resources that are on the web
• Engage with users with accessibility issues to get their perspective and input
• Run an automated assessment tool that can be used remotely on key pages so you can identify accessibility issues and how to solve them.  You can try Sitemorse without commitment or installing any software; alternatively, try one of our competitors.

Make it happen

Global Awareness Accessibility Day is a few weeks away. You have a great opportunity to finally do something about website accessibility. Make a commitment to action, take the first step and then plan out your longer-term tactics. Over the medium to long term you’ll definitely experience the benefits of having a compliant, fully accessible website. Start today.