Getting together to talk about accessibility and learn about inclusive design are great opportunities to meet people in your community, learn about their work, and share your knowledge.
Whether I’m chatting on Twitter or attending a local meetup event, every week I’m asked about gatherings for digital accessibility and inclusive design.
In the interest of encouraging people to attend, I’ve created a list of all the accessibility and inclusive design meetup groups I could find online.
The list contains over 40 meetup groups!
You’ll find groups organized first by region, then alphabetically by city within each region.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic has restricted meeting in person, many groups have opted to go online with their events.
Which means you have more opportunities to learn about accessibility and connect with other accessibility professionals and advocates!
If you know of other accessibility and inclusive design meetup groups, let me know via my contact form and I’ll add them to this post.
Note: I’ve loosened my standard to include groups that have met in the past year. I know many group organizers are struggling in their efforts to organize events.
If you notice a nearby meetup group hasn’t held a recent event, I recommend contacting them. They may be looking volunteers or new group organizers.
My list continues to be updated quarterly (and sometimes more often).
Accessibility and Inclusive Design Groups
Asia
- Bangalore, India: Bangalore Accessibility and Inclusive Design Meetup
- Tokyo, Japan: Accessibility Virtual Reality Group
Australia and New Zealand
- Auckland, New Zealand: Auckland Digital Accessibility and Inclusive Design Meetup
- Brisbane, Australia: Brisbane Web Accessibility & Inclusive Design
- Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne Web Accessibility & Inclusive Design
- Perth, Australia: Perth Web Accessibility & Inclusive Design
- Sydney, Australia: Sydney Web Accessibility & Inclusive Design
- Sydney, Australia: PDF Accessibility Sydney
- Wellington, New Zealand: Wellington Web Accessibility Meetup
Canada
- Hamilton, Ontario, Canada: a11yHam
- Montréal, Quebec, Canada: a11yMTL
- Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: a11yYOW – Ottawa Digital Accessibility and Inclusive Design
- Québec City, Quebec, Canada: a11yQC
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada: #a11yTO
- Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: Vancouver Digital Accessibility
Europe
- Berlin, Germany: A11y Meetup Berlin
- Bristol, England: Bristol Inclusive Design and Development
- Leeds, England: Accessibility Leeds
- London, England: London Accessibility Meetup
- Manchester, England: Accessibility Manchester
- Paris, France: Paris Web Accessibility
- Stockholm, Sweden: t12t – Stockholm
United States
- Atlanta, Georgia: A11Y Atlanta
- Austin, Texas: Austin Accessibility and Inclusive Design
- Boston, Massachusetts: a11yBoston
- Boulder, Colorado: Boulder Accessibility and Inclusive Design
- Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Web Accessibility and Inclusive Design
- Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Accessibility
- Lincoln, Nebraska: Nebraska Digital Accessibility
- Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota: Accessibility Twin Cities
- New York City, New York: Accessibility New York City
- New York City (Long Island), New York: LI Web Accessibility and Inclusive Design
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: A11yPHL – Philly Accessibility
- Portland, Oregon: Portland Accessibility and User Experience
- Princeton, New Jersey: A11yPrinceton, Princeton Accessibility
- Saint Louis, Missouri: Saint Louis Digital Accessibility & Inclusive Design
- San Diego, California: San Diego Accessibility & Inclusive Design
- San Francisco Bay Area, California: Bay Area Accessibility and Inclusive Design
- Seattle, Washington: Seattle Area Accessibility & Inclusive Design
Worldwide
Accessibility Club is another meetup group focused on accessibility events in Germany. Meetup events have been held in Nuremberg, Berlin, Turku, and Munich.
Any group I missed? If you know of others, please share them in the comments.
Originally published April 16, 2015
Good list, Deborah.
I’m surprised that there are 6 groups in Australia and only 2 in the UK (and neither of those are near me).
I used to go to the the UXPA Scotland meetings, but they haven’t been run for quite a long time now.
Hi Claire,
Thanks for your comment. There could be more accessibility and inclusive design groups in the UK, and I just haven’t found them. If you find any, let me know and I’ll add them to the list.
Sorry to hear the UXPA Scotland meetings haven’t been held in a while. I was office for our Michigan UPA (now UXPA) group for three years.
We don’t have a specific accessibility/inclusive design group in our area. I host accessibility talks through our Refresh Detroit and Detroit User Experience groups each year.
There’s another BAY Area group which meets regularly for dinners and discussions of accessibility-related topics. See:
http://www.meetup.com/Bay-Area-Accessibility-Dinners/
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for the info. Do you know who the group organizer is? I visited the group and discovered it’s closed. The info on Meetup only shows one organizer’s first name. If someone doesn’t recognize who that person is, they may be uncomfortable joining the group.
The organizer is Ted Drake.
For the Bay Area Accessibility dinners, it’s not closed, so I am not sure why it would appear that way to you. There are well over 200 members, so there’s no reason for discomfort.
Here’s the link for the Seattle Meetup that I dm-ed you about on Twitter:
http://www.meetup.com/a11ysea/
Thanks, Jennifer!
Terrific list of meetups. I’ve added a task to my calendar to return here to review the list since I’m a nomad and always traveling so it’s a bit of a challenge to find local meetups on accessibility wherever I go.
Thanks for putting this together.
Hi Mark,
Thanks for stopping by. Glad you found the list useful! If you find other meetups in your travels, let me know and I’ll add them to my list.