10th Global Accessibility Awareness Day
Today, May 20th 2021, we would like to turn your attention to the 10th Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). The GAAD was launched in May 2012, with aim to increase awareness of the importance of digital accessibility.
In today’s world, more and more we interact among ourselves and we interact with society through digital, web base channels. We communicate my emails and chats, we pay our bills, we order food, we entertain, we search for jobs, we voice our opinions, we inform and educate, we access our health data, financial data, and we can do almost every social interaction digitally. Internet has become our gateway for everyday function.
Unfortunately, web accessibility often goes unnoticed which makes it more difficult for people with disabilities to gain equal access to the online resources and functionalities. Users with disabilities have different kind of needs. People with hearing impairments require captions to enable them to follow video content, and users with visual impairments may use screen readers or magnification tools. People with learning disabilities, as well as users accessing content in a language that is not their own can benefit from Easy Read materials.
By not taking into consideration the needs of people with disabilities to fully access digital world, we are just creating yet another impediment for them, just as physical barriers or transportation problems.
Digital accessibility ensures users with disability that is affecting their vision, hearing, cognition, and/or motor functions to have the same experience and access to information or digital product as any other users. In a modern society, digital accessibility can be a tool for eliminating barriers that restrict a person’s access to information about rights, social services, jobs, housing, civic or political participation and much more, and at the same time, it can be a key to creating an inclusive society.
The project “Support to Modernization and Deinstitutionalization of Social Services” supports the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy in user-friendly public communication with provision of Easy Read and Accessible materials and information on user rights in Day Care services, Home Care services, etc.
We strongly believe that every user deserves a quality digital experience on the web. People with disabilities must be able to access and experience all web-based services, content and other digital products and through them fully access services and opportunities, that society offers.
You can find more information at the web of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education and Inclusion Europe.
You can download the
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