Join the Pack, Learn New Skills, Be Inspired
Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is celebrated annually on the third Thursday in May to highlight the importance of digital accessibility and its impact on over one billion people worldwide with disabilities. Since its launch in 2012, GAAD has encouraged communities to build more inclusive digital spaces—and the University of Washington is proud to take part.
Each year, the UW community marks GAAD with a day of interactive workshops, insightful talks, and hands-on activities focused on creating accessible and inclusive documents, courses, web content, and more. This year’s event on May 15 is co-hosted by UW-IT Accessible Technology Services, CREATE, and the UW Center for Learning, Computing, and Imagination.
Spend the day discovering tools, strategies, and resources to help you build accessibility into your digital spaces—while also preparing for the April 2026 WCAG compliance deadline.
Here’s an overview of the day’s events:
- Morning – Start strong with workshops focused on fixing common accessibility problems
- Mid-day – Hear from UW leadership and digital accessibility experts
- Afternoon – Dive deeper with hands-on workshops specifically tailored for UW instructors to make courses more accessible or website owners to learn about DubBot, an enterprise web accessibility checker
- Evening – Be inspired by Josh Miele, a technologist and author of Connecting Dots, as he shares his journey navigating as a blind person in a sighted world
Some sessions will be hybrid (HUB 250 and Zoom), while others will be in person or online only. Check the full schedule, session details, and find registration links on the UW GAAD 2025 website.