Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)

Thursday, May 20th is the tenth annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access and inclusion, and the more than One Billion people with disabilities/impairments. ITP advisory Board Member Joe Devon, one of the co-founders of GAAD, created this video for the Trojan community: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mVBY4iBB0qA4pAhlCOSeO1ZCS1t0MJtj/view?usp=sharing sharing the story of how GAAD began.

ITP Faculty Member Kendra Walther is actively involved in Viterbi's accessibility efforts and serves as co-lead of the Teach Access (https://teachaccess.org/) student task force and co-organizer of the 2021 Teach Access Virtual Study Away Program. During the program, over 80 students from nine universities participated in sessions with accessibility experts from a variety of technology companies, and 13 of those student participants were Trojans. Students learned about accessibility and assistive technologies, heard from disability advocates, learned about career paths in accessibility, engaged in AI and VR research in accessibility, discussed racial justice, intersectionality, and disability rights, thought about accessible design and hosting accessible events, and had the opportunity to apply their knowledge in an optional team project. Participating students were placed in small cross-disciplinary, multi-institutional teams and competed to build their own accessibility focused awareness or technology project during the Accessathon. Winners will be announced on the Teach Access website on GAAD, and each team has at least one Trojan student member.

On this GAAD, we encourage everyone in the Trojan family to talk, think, and learn about accessibility and inclusion! Fight on!

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Eric Perez