Events & Activities

Join us in celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) by pledging your time to improve accessibility in WordPress. Pledge time to work on a project of your choice that meaningfully improves accessibility in WordPress core, a WordPress plugin or theme, or on your own WordPress website. Not sure how you can help? Participate by testing free WordPress themes for accessibility and providing feedback to their developers! Join us for a live theme accessibility testing workshop on Zoom. 10:00 AM – Noon U.S. Central (3:00-5:00 PM UTC) Get a walk-through of the WordPress theme accessibility-ready testing process and contribute to WordPress while you attend! This isn’t just a “sit and watch” webinar. Attendees will learn by doing as Amber Hinds, CEO of Equalize Digital, walks you through the testing process for real themes, with Q&A throughout. You’ll leave the session with testing complete or in process and the ability to share immediate feedback with theme developers as your GAAD contribution. The webinar will have CART captions on Zoom and is pre-approved for IAAP continuing education credits.

This May 21, ServiceNow is marking Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) with a live fireside chat on accessibility, inclusion, and what it really takes to build products that work for everyone. Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and join VP of Accessibility & Globalization, Eamon McErlean, alongside two ServiceNow customers for an honest, open conversation about the state of digital accessibility — where the industry is making real progress, where the gaps remain, and what organizations can do right now to move the needle. Bring your questions for the Q&A session at the end of the session. Whether you’re an accessibility practitioner, a product leader, or just getting started on your accessibility journey, this session is for you.

Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) 2026 will be celebrated in Bangladesh under the theme: “Design, Develop, Deliver: Accessibility at Every Step.” The event is organized by the Aspire to Innovate (a2i) Programme in collaboration with UNDP Bangladesh, Sightsavers International, and Friendship (INGO). The celebration aims to promote digital accessibility and inclusive technology for persons with disabilities in Bangladesh.

The program will include:

• Exhibition on disability innovation and assistive technology
• Accessibility awareness sessions
• Government and private sector engagement
• Recognition of organizations ensuring accessible digital services
• Networking among policymakers, development partners, disability organizations, innovators, and accessibility professionals

Bangladesh has made significant progress in digital accessibility through policy development, accessible government services, and inclusive innovation initiatives led by the a2i Disability Innovation Lab. The event will bring together representatives from government ministries, development organizations, private sector companies, accessibility experts, organizations of persons with disabilities, financial institutions, media, and innovators to advance inclusive digital transformation.

Over the past decade, global policy discourse has increasingly focused on expanding “internet access” as a cornerstone of digital inclusion. Yet for persons with disabilities, connectivity alone does not translate into meaningful participation. A user may be connected, possess a device, and have basic digital skills—and still remain excluded due to inaccessible design, incompatible platforms, or poorly implemented technologies. This gap calls for a conceptual shift: from access to agency. At the same time, the rapid integration of artificial intelligence into digital ecosystems is reshaping how users interact with technology. AI-powered tools—such as automated captioning, voice interfaces, and assistive agents—hold transformative potential. However, they also introduce new risks, including bias, unreliable outputs, and inaccessible design layers that may deepen exclusion if left unaddressed. Against this backdrop, accessibility must be reframed not as a technical afterthought, but as a governance, rights, and development issue—central to debates on AI, digital public infrastructure, and inclusive innovation.

“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/

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.

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)

CarMax & Edmunds, leaders in the automotive research and retail space, are hosting Glenda Sims, Chief Information Accessibility Officer at Deque. This year Glenda will be discussing personal experiences, building empathy & the opportunities that AI presents for people with disabilities.

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.

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.