Global Accessibility Awareness Day

Thursday 19 May is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). GAAD is a global event with the purpose of getting people talking, thinking, and learning about digital accessibility and inclusion.

Every user deserves a first-class experience on the web, which means websites, products, and platforms need to be accessible. Someone with a disability must be able to experience the wonders of the web with the same successful outcome as those without disabilities.

At Centre for Inclusive Design digital accessibility is in our DNA. So, this GAAD day, we wanted to highlight the importance of accessibility by asking, ‘if 1000 people looked at your website, who would it include?’.

We estimated the response based on the national Australian average and found…

660 – wear glasses or contact lenses to see or read better.

180 – have a temporary or permanent disability, restricting everyday activities.

126 – have a literacy level lower than 1 and struggle with unfamiliar texts and multiple pieces of information.

100 – are dyslexic and have difficulty with accurate reading and spelling correctly.

42 – are colour vision deficient and have trouble distinguishing between different colours.

60 – are blind or have low vision that cannot be corrected with glasses or contact lenses.

If you’re thinking about how you can make the world more accessible, we’ve curated a list of our resources with information for developers, creators and everyone in between.