Returning for the fourth year, Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), Detroit will be held May 18, 2017 at Bamboo Detroit in downtown Detroit, Michigan.
Our event will join dozens of other events held around the world on May 18 to raise awareness of digital accessibility in the products and services we use and design.
What is Global Accessibility Awareness Day?
In 2012, Joe Devon and Jennison Asuncion came up with the idea of having a day where people gather together to talk, think, and learn about:
- Digital accessibility
- Inclusive design
- People with different disabilities
Years later, GAAD has become an annual event, with activities organized worldwide by local meetup groups, usability organizations, colleges/universities, and corporations.
People around the world attend GAAD online events and in-person events to learn about digital accessibility first-hand, and in many cases, with hands-on workshops.
I’ve been hosting GAAD Detroit for the past four years. This year’s event is a joint partnership between Refresh Detroit and Ladies That UX Detroit, two local groups I’ve been actively involved with for years.
My Refresh Detroit co-leader Nick DeNardis and I are the main organizers for GAAD Detroit.
Who Is This Event For?
Whether you’re a:
- Designer
- Developer
- Usability specialist
- Writer
- Project manager
- Digital marketer
- Someone with an interest in making technology accessible to everyone
you’re invited to attend!
GAAD Detroit
For our GAAD Detroit 2017 event, we’re excited to announce two local accessibility professionals will speak on planning for accessibility in your designs and how to use an automated accessibility testing tool.
In her Design Before Code: Thinking About Accessibility from the Ground Up talk, Caitlin Geier will discuss how to think about accessibility when designing. You don’t want to wait until it’s coded.
Geier will offer accessibility tips for designers so that time will be saved in development.
You’ll learn how to check the accessibility of your web projects in Matt Isner’s Introduction to aXE presentation. Isner will explain how to use aXe, a free Chrome extension and open source JavaScript accessibility testing engine.
We’re hoping there will be time for you to try aXe out on your laptop.
Register today!
Speakers
Caitlin Geier
As UX designer at Deque Systems, Caitlin Geier is passionate about understanding the users she’s designing for. She continually strives to incorporate accessibility elements into her work to ensure that all users can benefit from inclusive design.
Matt Isner
In his role as JavaScript developer at Deque Systems, Matt Isner specializes in teaching development teams to plan, test, and code for accessibility and has helped orchestrate large remediation efforts of complex enterprise applications.
He is intrigued by the idea of the computer system as an expression of human neurobiology, and champions the notion that accessible web content is better understood by both humans and computers.
Event Details
GAAD Detroit will be held at Bamboo Detroit in Detroit, Michigan from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. Pre-registration is required, cost is $5.00.
We’ll have networking and refreshments (food and soft drinks/water) from 6:30pm to 7:00pm; the first presentation begins at 7:10pm.
If you have a laptop, we encourage you to bring it so you have an opportunity to try aXe on one of your web pages or your favorite website.
Sponsor
We’re grateful to Deque Systems for sponsoring our event and for being a participant in our GAAD Detroit events since the first event in 2014.
Deque is a leading provider of web and mobile accessibility software and services. Their mission is digital equality, and the Deque team consists of leaders and innovators in accessibility and testing tools development.
Hope to see you May 18!
