9th Annual UW Global Accessibility Awareness Day (UW GAAD)
GAAD is an annual global event, designed to engage people around the world in talking, thinking, and learning about digital access and inclusion.
Additional information about GAAD is available at https://accessibility.day.
Each year, the UW commemorates GAAD by offering a day of lectures, workshops, and other activities related to digital accessibility. In 2025, we will be celebrating with a hybrid event, in person and on Zoom. This year’s event is co-organized by UW-IT Accessible Technology Services, CREATE, and UW Center for Learning, Computing, and Imagination.
Date: May 15, 2025
Time: 9:00am – 6:00pm
Location: HUB 250 and virtual via Zoom (plus evening activity in CS2)
UW GAAD 2025 sessions are free and open to the UW community, but registration is required.
NOTE: The deadline for requesting accommodations for this event is April 30th.
Please bring your own device for in-person workshops.
Agenda
Join us for one session or attend them all!
Morning Agenda
| Activity | Start Time | End Time |
|---|---|---|
| Fix Your Accessibility 1: Headings | 9:00 am | 9:50 am |
| Fix Your Accessibility 2: Alt text for Images | 10:00 am | 10:50 am |
| Fix Your Accessibility 3: Color Contrast | 11:00 am | 11:50 am |
Lunch (Optional networking)
| Activity | Start Time | End Time |
|---|---|---|
| Break for Lunch (not in HUB 250) | 12:00 pm | 12:50 pm |
Mid-day Agenda
| Activity | Start Time | End Time |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome Message from UW Leadership | 1:00 pm | 1:20 pm |
| Jen Mankoff | 1:20 pm | 1:30 pm |
| Emma McDonnell and Avery Mack | 1:30 pm | 2:15 pm |
| Accessibility Spotlight | 2:15 pm | 2:30 pm |
Afternoon Agenda
| Activity | Start Time | End Time |
|---|---|---|
| 2:45 pm | 4:15 pm |
Evening Agenda
| Activity | Start Time | End Time |
|---|---|---|
| Josh Miele talk on his new book, Connecting Dots | 4:30 pm | 6:00 pm |
Session Descriptions
Morning Schedule: “Fix Your Accessibility” Workshops (HUB 250 & Zoom)
Our morning will be focused on fixing three common accessibility problems, with the goal of fixing as many accessibility problems as possible within a three hour span:
- Headings – All digital documents should be organized with a clear heading structure that forms an outline of the page content.
- Alt text for images – All informative images require alt text that succinctly describes the image content to people who are unable to see it.
- Color contrast – Accessibility standards include specific requirements for contrast between text and background colors.
Each of these issues applies to a variety of technologies, including websites, Word documents, Google Docs, PDF, and Canvas pages.
Each hour will begin with instruction that includes an overview of the problem and a brief demo of how to fix the problem in each of these digital environments. Following this instruction, participants will devote the rest of the hour to fixing as many instances of this problem as possible within content they own or manage, with instructors available to answer questions and provide support.
In-person participants should bring their own laptops. All participants should take a moment prior to the event to install the free tools listed in the Free Recommended Tools section below.
Break for Lunch (Not in HUB 250)
Optional networking opportunity in Husky Den Food Court
Mid-day Program (HUB 250 & Zoom)
Welcome Message from UW Leadership
Speaker(s) to be announced. Stay tuned for more details.
Jen Mankoff
Stay tuned for more details.
Emma McDonnell and Avery Mack
Stay tuned for more details.
Accessibility Spotlight
Stay tuned for more details.
Afternoon Concurrent Sessions (HUB 250 & Zoom)
Interdisciplinary Computing Instructor Workshop on Making Courses More Accessible (Zoom)
Do you teach a course involving computing, programming, or data analysis? Whether you teach programming for scientists and researchers, business and information systems, digital arts and computing for the humanities, or data management and analysis, this workshop is designed for you! In this workshop, you’ll connect with and learn from other UW instructors around resources and ideas for making our computing courses more accessible towards meeting the 2026 digital accessibility requirements. The workshop will feature a short keynote followed by parallel interactive tutorials led by accessibility experts on topics such as pedagogy, community, teaching tools, assessment, and visuals. Breakout sessions and virtual coffee breaks will provide time for instructors to meet each other for one-on-one conversations and networking. Feel free to join for the entire event, or just the first or second half.
Fix Your Accessibility: DubBot (HUB 250)
This workshop is an opportunity for users of DubBot, the UW’s enterprise web accessibility checker, to work together on fixing the accessibility of their websites based on feedback provided by the tool. Penny Kronz, VP of Client Services for DubBot, will be joining remotely and standing by to answer questions and provide support. If you are responsible for a UW website and would like to participate in this workshop but have not yet added your site to DubBot, please submit your site prior to the workshop using the DubBot Access Request form. In-person participants should bring their own laptops.
Evening Activity (CS2)
Josh Miele Talk on his new book, Connecting Dots
Connecting Dots, written by Josh Miele in collaboration with veteran journalist Wendell Jamieson, tells the story of Dr. Miele’s personal and professional blind life. From Brooklyn to Berkeley, from childhood to parenthood, from student to scholar, and beyond, this book describes Dr. Miele’s experience growing up, coming of age, and establishing a life and career as a blind person in a sighted world.
Connecting Dots tells the very personal story of Josh’s growth and development while offering his professional take on widely-shared challenges of blindness, such as access to maps and graphics, access to video content, and the challenge of managing uninvited “assistance” from sighted strangers. It also explains some of his unique approaches to solving accessibility challenges, such as automated tools for generating tactile maps, a somewhat shady scheme for crowd-sourcing descriptions of YouTube videos, and a brief but brutal sabotage campaign against inaccessible ATMs in the late 90s. Along the way, he talks about canes and dogs, braille and babies, screen readers and spacecraft, and the rebellion and romance throughout his life that ties them all together.
Free Recommended Tools
The following free tools will be used in the Fixing Your Accessibility Workshops. Please download and install them in advance (it should take less than five minutes to install them all):
- Accessibility Bookmarklets – supported by most web browsers
- WAVE Browser Extension – available for Chrome, Firefox, or Edge
- Web Developer Extension – for Chrome, Firefox, or Opera
- Colour Contrast Analyser – a standalone application for Windows or Mac OS
For additional tools, see the annotated list on our Tools and Resources page.