Global Accessibility Awareness Day – 19th May 2022

Every year the third Thursday of May is the Global Accessibility Awareness Day. This year it falls on the 19th of May. According to DaysofTheYear, Global Accessibility Awareness Day was first observed in 2015. So this will be the seventh year of celebrating this day.

At UCEM we have taken a lot of steps to create accessibility awareness among our staff. 

• Poster campaign
• Screensaver campaign
• Accessibility in-person workshops
• Accessibility webinars
• Accessibility online workshops
• Accessibility Awareness Course

Looking at the uptake of UCEM Accessibility Awareness Course it is so heartening to see that so many colleagues have taken the time to engage with the course. UCEM has about 300 staff members and we have so far issued 

• Assistive Technology – 58 badges
• Web Accessibility and Standards – 43 badges
• Accessible Colour – 46 badges
• Headings and Document Structure – 36 badges
• Accessible Video and Audio – 34 badges
• Accessible Images – 34 badges
• Accessible Tables – 34 badges
• Accessibility Awareness – 24 badges

This means almost one in five staff members have earned an accessibility badge. It is also worth noting that the badges are ONLY offered to participants who earn 100% in the associated quiz which means there may be many more who have engaged with the course who may not have earned the badges.    There are so many great resources out there that help raise accessibility awareness. I would highly recommend the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative website. Watch the Accessibility Perspective videos and this will show why accessibility awareness is so important.