Events & Activities

Am 21. Mai 2026 ist Global Accessibility Awareness Day. Nutzen Sie diesen Tag und nehmen am eLeDia.summit teil: einem kostenlosen Online-Event rund um digitale Barrierefreiheit. Zusammen mit unseren Partnern ReadSpeaker, Pfennigparade, Brickfield Education Lab und Think Modular bieten wir Ihnen kompakte Vorträge, konkrete Tools und Best Practices für inklusives Lernen und Lehren.

This forum showcases accessibility work led by government, with presentations and discussions from across the public service. While the focus is on government practice and initiatives, the forum is open to anyone interested in digital accessibility. This free event will spotlight practical conversations and discussions about what’s working well, what’s making a difference, and what others can learn from and apply in their own work. Live captions and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) interpreters will be available.

“GAAD Japan” was first held in 2020 as an online seminar for the Japanese market, and this year marks its seventh consecutive year. Participation is free. Since the event is live-streamed on YouTube, you can join only during the times that work best for you. There will be five sessions and five lightning talks. Real-time subtitles (in Japanese and English) are available. Please check the time table for details at https://www.gaad.jp/timetable/

This year, the Digital Accessibility Lab, the Center for Distributed Learning, and other UCF campus partners are proud to host a series of engaging opportunities to learn, connect, and take action. We’ll be hosting a live webinar exploring key accessibility topics, best practices, and real-world insights that empower our campus community to create more accessible digital content. Whether you’re new to accessibility or advancing your expertise, GAAD at UCF is your opportunity to be part of a more inclusive digital future. More information and the agenda is located at: https://access.ucf.edu/digital-accessibility-lab/global-accessibility-awareness-day/

Could you survive an hour without your mouse? Put yourself to the test for No Mouse in the House day! Join colleagues and teams across Deakin university as we come together for a keyboard-only hour, discovering time-saving shortcuts, spotting accessibility issues, and maybe even winning a prize. Register as an individual or a team! It’s a light-hearted challenge with a serious purpose: understanding the experiences of keyboard navigating users, uncovering hidden barriers to use and learning about how we can all contribute to more accessible digital spaces. Have a go! Fight the urge to click – and learn just how powerful your keyboard can be. Optional training and support resources will be made available before the event. This is event is a collaboration – Deakin Accessibility Champions x Inclusive Education I’m not a Deakin University Staff member – can I join? Yes! While this event is designed for Deakin staff, accessibility should be for everybody! You won’t be able to access the Teams support site on the day, but you can come to the training, access the ‘cheat sheet’ and join us in the keyboard-only hour.

As the European Union ushers in a new era of digital governance, researchers and developers face a burgeoning “Accessibility Paradox.” On one hand, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) mandates that digital services and public infrastructures be proactively inclusive, often requiring systems to adapt to the specific needs of users with disabilities. On the other, the EU AI Act introduces stringent prohibitions on “biometric categorisation,” strictly regulating or banning the use of AI to infer sensitive characteristics, such as disability status, for the purpose of data harvesting or model training.

This webinar explores the critical tension between these two landmark regulations. While the EAA pushes for “smart” environments that recognise and respond to human diversity, the AI Act seeks to protect citizens from being “labelled” or profiled by automated systems. This creates a complex landscape for those working in urban planning and digital co-creation: How can we build AI-driven tools that provide seamless accessibility without infringing on biometric privacy? In practice, this paradox is intensified by institutional data deserts, where the lived accessibility needs of vulnerable groups are poorly captured, forcing designers to choose between inference, exclusion, or human mediation.

Drawing on research, this webinar will dissect the legal “gray areas” of AI-mediated outreach. Key discussion points include:

• The distinction between prohibited biometric profiling and legitimate assistive personalisation.
• Strategies for designing privacy-preserving accessibility that prioritise user-led declarations over autonomous system-led detection.
• A clash of rules: Why fixed AI laws and ‘one-time’ consent don’t work for the diverse and changing needs of neurodivergent people
• The challenges of maintaining “human-to-human” connection in digital co-creation tools, such as chatbots, while ensuring they do not become barriers for older or digitally excluded populations.
• Governance tensions and the role of civil society: How can accessible, rights-based AI systems be meaningfully designed and implemented if civil society organisations representing marginalised communities are structurally excluded from regulatory deliberations and co-creation processes?

By reframing these regulatory hurdles as design opportunities, this webinar provides a roadmap for “Double Compliance”, ensuring that the next generation of AI tools is not only technologically advanced but also ethically grounded and universally accessible.

Webinar Outline

Total time: 90 minutes

• 11:00 – 11:05: Welcome Address by Sarah Anne McDonagh (UAB)
• 11:05 – 11:20 When Inclusion Meets Prohibition: The Accessibility Paradox in EU AI Law (Daphne, DBC diadikasia, ALFIE)
• 11:20 – 11:35 Civil Society and the AI Governance Paradox (Alexandros Minotakis, University College Dublin, FORSEE)
• 11:35 – 11:50: The road to Paradox Hell may be paved with the best of intentions (Haris Shekeris, Catalink, ALFIE)
• 11:50 – 12:20 Debate & Open Discussion (Q&A)
• 12:20 – 12:30: Wrap up Sarah McDonagh (UAB)

For this special Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) session, we are pulling back the curtain on our own digital infrastructure. At ORCID, we are committed to maintaining a space for transparent and trustworthy connections for all researchers and their works. But we recognize that for a connection to be truly trustworthy, it must first be accessible. Behind the scenes, we are working to strip away digital barriers to ensure every user—regardless of ability, circumstance, or bandwidth—can navigate our tools with confidence. Join ORCID Web Producer, Rob Blackburn, for an open, honest conversation about the work we’ve done and continue to do to ensure our website is inclusive, compliant, and user-friendly for the entire global research community. Bring your questions and join the conversation as we work toward a web that truly works for everyone.

Planned inside the ‘Voice for All’ European project, the webinar will train participants in how to design and implement different kinds of accessible communication campaigns that contribute to the democratic process, including the relevance of different media for reaching specific target groups and the importance of tailoring language to the audience. Promoted by Cerebral Palsy Europe, curated by Fightthestroke Foundation.

Im Rahmen eines Gast-Events beim Accessibility Meetup Munich lädt die codecentric AG euch zu einer Reise ins Land der Barrieren ein. Barrierefreiheit ist mehr als ein einfaches Abhaken einer WCAG-Checkliste: Sie betrifft echte Menschen mit den unterschiedlichsten Bedürfnissen. In dieser Session schlüpfen wir in verschiedene Rollen und erleben Websites so wie sie Menschen mit Behinderung erleben könnten. Dabei laufen wir als Keyboardnutzerin in Sackgassen, sehen uns verwirrenden Formularen gegenüber, und lernen die Basics der Screenreadernutzung. Die Session ist ein Impuls, sich mit der Nutzersicht auf Barrierefreiheit auseinanderzusetzen und bietet praktische Vorgehensweisen fürs manuelle Testen an. Sie ist kein Ersatz für Nutzertests mit echten Nutzer*innen mit Behinderung.

Únete a Plexus Tech en el GAAD 2026: Con inclusión. Sin excepción , un evento en directo sobre el presente y futuro de la accesibilidad digital en España y Europa. El 21 de mayo, de 11:00 a 14:00 (CET), reuniremos a expertos/as, reguladores, asociaciones de personas con discapacidad y desarrolladores/as en una serie de mesas redondas y entrevistas que abordarán temas de actualidad como: El European Accessibility Act y su impacto en España. El observatorio de accesibilidad y su papel en las administraciones públicas. Autoridades de vigilancia para el sector privado en accesibilidad (UTAC). El futuro de la accesibilidad: IA, Figma, normas UNE y situación en Europa. Accesibilidad en el desarrollo iOS. Entidades representantes de la discapacidad: Fundación ONCE, COGAMI, COCEMFE, NVDA en español. Entidades acreditadas por ENAC para inspeccionar accesibilidad. El evento contará con interpretación en lengua de signos en directo y estará presentado por el equipo de accesibilidad de Plexus Tech. ¡Te esperamos!