{"id":8140,"date":"2025-05-09T09:36:07","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T08:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/?p=8140"},"modified":"2025-05-09T09:39:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T08:39:08","slug":"global-accessibility-awareness-day-gaad-thursday-15th-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/2025\/05\/09\/global-accessibility-awareness-day-gaad-thursday-15th-may\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)\u00a0&#8211; Thursday 15th May"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/files\/2025\/05\/gaad-full-text-logo.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"188\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/files\/2025\/05\/gaad-full-text-logo.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8141\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/accessibility.day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Global Accessibility Awareness Day<\/strong><\/a><strong> (GAAD)<\/strong> takes place on the 3rd Thursday of May each year. Individuals are encouraged to take an hour to experience first-hand the impact of digital accessibility (or lack thereof). This year <a href=\"https:\/\/accessibility.day\/participate-directly\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">GAAD<\/a> takes place on <strong>Thursday 15<\/strong><strong><sup>th<\/sup><\/strong><strong> May<\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Participate Directly&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There are many ways to get involved. The GAAD webpage recommends ways that individuals can <a href=\"https:\/\/accessibility.day\/participate-directly\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>participate directly<\/strong><\/a><strong> <\/strong>\u2013 for example, you can:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Think about how you can <strong>make your events and meetings more accessible <\/strong>\u2013 whether it\u2019s the moment you start planning, writing communications, and looking at how these are hosted (online, in-person or hybrid).\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Watch a Disability Awareness video<\/strong> \u2013 GAAD recommend: a 3-minute\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Xkz-UNuvve0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Disability Sensitivity video.<\/a>\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Make <strong>accessible digital experiences<\/strong> \u2013 e.g. ensure images have alt text and considering contrast when using colour. \u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>There is also a list of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/sconner.net\/blog\/ideas-for-gaad\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">actionable ideas for GAAD<\/a> available.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Spread Awareness&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The GAAD webpage also shares how we can <a href=\"https:\/\/accessibility.day\/spread-awareness\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>spread awareness<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong> One of the suggestions is <strong>sharing blog posts<\/strong>. To help our colleagues and students at Newcastle to engage with accessibility content,\u00a0colleagues in the Learning and Teaching Development Service (LTDS)\u00a0are going to be sharing\u00a0blog posts each day during the week that GAAD falls in (week of 12<sup>th<\/sup> May). We will be writing and sharing content for you to engage with, including additional resources available to you, around <strong>digital accessibility<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Resources&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There are plenty of resources you can use to get started and learn about how you can make further considerations around accessibility and encourage others to do the same. You can check out the following resources available at Newcastle:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Our <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/2023\/05\/15\/7066\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Blog Series<\/a> from GAAD in 2023\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>LTDS <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncl.ac.uk\/learning-and-teaching\/effective-practice\/digital-accessibility\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Digital Accessibility<\/a> webpage \u2013 in particular you may wish to look at:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/newcastle.sharepoint.com\/sites\/LTDS\/Internal%20Only%20Webdocs\/Forms\/AllItems.aspx?id=%2Fsites%2FLTDS%2FInternal%20Only%20Webdocs%2FEveryone%2FAccessibility%2FSummary%20of%20Accessibility%20Resources%2Epdf&amp;parent=%2Fsites%2FLTDS%2FInternal%20Only%20Webdocs%2FEveryone%2FAccessibility\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Summary of Accessibility Resources<\/a> at Newcastle\u00a0and <a href=\"https:\/\/newcastle.sharepoint.com\/sites\/LTDS\/Internal%20Only%20Webdocs\/Forms\/AllItems.aspx?id=%2Fsites%2FLTDS%2FInternal%20Only%20Webdocs%2FFileStore%2FFiles%2FDesigningforDiverseLearnersNCL%2Epdf&amp;parent=%2Fsites%2FLTDS%2FInternal%20Only%20Webdocs%2FFileStore%2FFiles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Designing for Diverse Learners<\/a> checklist\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>LTDS <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncl.ac.uk\/learning-and-teaching\/effective-practice\/universal-design\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Universal Design for Learning<\/a> webpage (You may also wish to look at <a href=\"https:\/\/udlguidelines.cast.org\/static\/udlg3-graphicorganizer-digital-numbers-a11y.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Universal Design for Learning Guidelines<\/a>).\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Check back on the blog on Monday 12th May for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) takes place on the 3rd Thursday of May each year. Individuals are encouraged to take an hour to experience first-hand the impact of digital accessibility (or lack thereof). This year GAAD takes place on Thursday 15th May.&nbsp; Participate Directly&nbsp; There are many ways to get involved. The GAAD webpage recommends &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/2025\/05\/09\/global-accessibility-awareness-day-gaad-thursday-15th-may\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)\u00a0&#8211; Thursday 15th May&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8577,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[631,701],"tags":[416],"class_list":["post-8140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accessibility","category-effective-practice","tag-accessibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8577"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8140"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8144,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8140\/revisions\/8144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}