Each year, millions of people face online barriers that often go unnoticed by many of us. These can include a checkout form that cannot be completed with just a keyboard, a video without captions, a website that is incompatible with screen readers or a building that is not wheelchair accessible. These are not trivial issues but barriers and challenges that prevent individuals from fully engaging in education, employment, healthcare, entertainment, and daily life.
This is why Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) matters. GAAD is designed to get people talking and discussing access and inclusion. At the University of Limerick, we are currently in the fourth year of running a week of events to celebrate GAAD and building awareness around access and inclusion.
Accessibility is About People
When products and services are inaccessible, people are excluded from experiences others take for granted. The GAAD week of events, held each year, is about to move beyond compliance and focus on real human experiences and on how we, as an institution, support everyone. This focus on human experience was exemplified through so many events running this week, such as the visit of the Irish guide dogs, the accessibility tour and the student panel
Accessibility Benefits Everyone
A major misconception about accessibility is that it only helps a small group of users. In truth, inclusive and accessible design improves experiences for everyone. For example, captions can benefit a range of users, not just those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Support for text-to-speech features benefits more than just dyslexic students, as these features are universally designed and can benefit everyone. Accessibility tools and assistive technologies have become ubiquitous, evolving as technology evolves. The same applies to buildings; ramps don’t just support physically disabled people, they can support anyone with mobility issues, cyclists and buggies. Making things accessible truly benefits everyone.
Small Changes Can Make a Big Difference
The idea of accessibility can feel overwhelming, but meaningful progress often begins with simple steps:
- Adding descriptive alt text to non-text elements to digital images in your daily work, e.g., emails, PowerPoints, webpages
- Ensuring sufficient colour contrast (not sure if the contrast is right, this colour contrast checker is a helpful tool).
- Providing captions and transcripts to video and audio content
- Use an accessible font and font size
- Using clear headings and readable language
- Check accessible guidelines for events
- Consider how the layout of your office, lab or lecture room could be more accessible
Small improvements can dramatically improve someone’s ability to interact with their environment. This is our ask of you this year: make one small change in your practices. GAAD is also a reminder that accessibility is not achieved overnight; it is a continual journey.
Building a More Inclusive Digital Future
Global Accessibility Awareness Day challenges us to ask an important question:
Who are we unintentionally excluding?
The answer should shape how we design, build, write, and innovate moving forward.
Accessibility and inclusion are everyone's business, not just for a select few.
Accessibility is not just about technology. It is about empathy, inclusion, and creating a more equitable world for everyone. It is something worth recognising every day, not just during our GAAD week of events each May.
Check out the events taking place all this week in UL for GAAD week