Global Accessibility Awareness Day/ GAAD And Its Significance aim is to design and create product services that include anyone. Do you know that 15% of the world’s population according to the world health organization live with some kind of disabilities, that’s over one billion people and they are potentially not able to use your websites unless you have made them easily accessible to them. Digital accessibility is about providing equal access and opportunity to people of all abilities and disabilities. that includes visual, hearing, and physical impairments, but also cognitively challenged people, the elderly, and other less obvious groups. Simply put it’s making websites simple and usable for everyone across all devices.
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Well, no worries if you don’t know GAAD and its significance, as this article is all about you. In this article, we will also solve some common questions from readers:
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Who is benefitted from accessible content?
Yes, you are right it is everyone. As mentioned earlier GAAD benefits from all accessible content and not just persons with disabilities. Moreover, good color contrast texts help people with and without visual impairments. Alternative text for images creates more keywords for search engines to index. This drives more traffic to the website. Also, captions for video presentations not only help persons who are deaf or have hearing impairments; they also help persons who don’t speak English to learn the language. Even keyboard-accessible controls, which benefit persons with dexterity impairments, help people who can’t find their mouse.
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What is GAAD?
Global Accessibility Awareness Day targets developers, designers, and other creators to put a greater focus on digital accessibility. And also including the billion people across the world who have disabilities and impairments. Every year the third Thursday of May is Global Accessibility Awareness Day. However, this makes the next occurrence of GAAD this year on the 20th May 2021. The day is popular to many of us but we don’t understand the significance of this day. Many websites celebrate this day on their sites as well. If you can’t celebrate try to understand and know the significance of GAAD.
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Where did it come from?
In 2011 a web developer named Joe Devon posted a blog that inspired GAAD. His purpose was to call for developers to come together and work to bridge the accessibility gap by raising awareness and global standards. GAAD continued its growth every year, reaching a stage where people can hold virtual and in-person events across the world.
It’s fantastic to see an increasing number of people participate in this awareness day each year to talk, think, and learn more about how the physical and digital world can become more accessible and inclusive for people with different disabilities.
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What are GAAD and its significance?
Many websites neglect this and this means they are turning down what could have been loyal customers and users. Also making your websites accessible doesn’t strictly mean catering to people with disabilities. It means catering to an increasing number of senior citizens. By 2021, the share of people over 65 will reach nearly 30% in Japan, 20% in Europe, and 16% in the U.S. This is definitely something worth paying attention to because seniors are a segment with strong purchasing power.
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How many people with disabilities are there in the U.S.?
According to the survey of 2021, the disability portion has reached 57 Million in the U.S. By 2020, it was 43 million people in the United States have disabilities. This means one out of three Americans is suffering some kind of disability. Over 6.6 million Americans have visual impairments, 10.5 million have hearing impairments, 14.3 million have cognitive impairments, and 15.2 million have dexterity impairments. All together globally, about 15% have some form of disability, the second-largest minority group next to women. hence, we can’t ignore people suffering from disabilities. According to WE magazine, their companies are spending around $700 million every year on technology especially for disabled people.
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Why is it so important to be aware of accessibility?
There are plenty of obvious valid reasons that accessibility matters, but in the end, people with disabilities should have the same rights as the wider population, including their ability to engage with, learn from, and communicate via the digital world. When we think and decide to take it upon ourselves to design for accessibility. We create more opportunities for disabled people to utilize digital technology and, simultaneously increase our market share, and support diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Designers have the responsibility not only to their profession but also to the users and their society to design perfect accessible solutions. Moreover, Global Accessibility Awareness Day does a great job of promoting that.
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How to support the GAAD?
GAAD is basically a part of website designing, which must be taken care of from the first. The best way to find out how you can get involved in GAAD is from the Global Accessibility Awareness Day website itself. They list various ways you can support, including:
– In-person events
– Virtual events
– Webinars
– Game Jams
– BBC access all areas live stream
CONCLUSION
Global Accessibility Awareness Day or GAAD focuses on getting everyone in the world of accessibility and its significance. The simple idea of GAAD is recognized by the United Nations as a basic human right, It is not difficult to build accessibility websites, and doing so is a great way to take social responsibilities and improve your business at the same time. When sites are “accessibility optimized” they understand for all users. Accessible websites are also found easier by search engines. All in all, it is positive for everyone. Accessibility websites attract people with disabilities because it is easy to understand.
Accessibility is increasingly also a necessity from a regulatory point of view. In fact, many countries around the world are introducing or tightening existing laws that make accessibility a mandatory focus. Some even enforce this with fines.
At draftss, we can help you make sure everyone experiences your websites the way they were meant to. Let’s build a better web for all.
