Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2014

May 15th is this year’s Global Accessibility Awareness Day. A day about promoting web accessibility to people who’ve never heard of it before. It’s a day when people like me do everything we can to spread the good word of web accessibility.

Here’s the introduction the official website gives:

The target audience of GAAD is the design, development, usability, and related communities who build, shape, fund and influence technology and its use. While people may be interested in the topic of making technology accessible and usable by persons with disabilities, the reality is that they often do not know how or where to start. Awareness comes first.

Wuhcag works a little differently as you know. While I work with developers and designers, I also love talking to content creators and business owners. That’s why I try to blog about accessibility from the ground up. If you create content for the web (any content at all!) or you own a website and someone else does it for you, you need to know about web accessibility. When better to start than Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2014?

Are you a Dude or a Douche?

To celebrate the official Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2014 hashtag (#GAAD), we’re going to have a little fun on May 15th.

You can be a #GAADude or a #GAADouche on the day.

#GAADude

#GAADudes and Dudettes are people trying to help with web accessibility. Not just the industry leaders, but anyone making even one element on their website more accessible on May 15th. If you’re taking part in Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2014, let me know by telling me what you’re doing via Twitter and using the hashtag #GAADude.

For example:

Just added alt text to images on my site. I’m a total #GAADude

#GAADouche

Just for fun, I want you to let me know how you’re disrupting web accessibility too. Why not go in to work early and steal all the mice? Pull the plug on everyone’s speakers or tape newspaper over monitors? Find something fun to do, that helps everyone else learn a little about the issues people with disabilities can face using the internet.

Don’t forget to share:

Just wrote my boss a memo in the smallest lettering I could manage. Hope she’s got a magnifying glass! #GAADouche

My Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2014 sale

Just like last year, I’m running a limited sale on my book, How to Meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. The sale runs from May 13th to May 16th UK time – so wherever in the world you are, you can get it on GAAD.

What’s the deal? Pay what you want for it! Instead of my usual price, I’ll set the price at $1 and you can pay just that (or whatever you want over $1).

So get going, buy the book for as little as $1 – with free updates for life!

Happy Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2014!