Global Accessibility Awareness Day

Design, Develop, Deliver

Global Accessibility Awareness Day is a virtual accessibility event on Thursday, May 21, 2026 aimed at engaging in conversation, thinking, and learning about access and inclusion. The year’s theme, “Design, Develop, Deliver”, is about refining your digital accessibility skills. It’s about making accessibility an integral part of everything we do—from the way we communicate, design, and innovate, to how we create a more equitable future for everyone. 

This year’s event is sponsored by the University of Minnesota, the University of Illinois system, and the University of Michigan. The event is organized by a volunteer group of dedicated University employees from the sponsoring institutions.

Event Schedule

Times are provided in Central Time.

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Session 1: 11:15 AM to noon

A1: Accessible by Design: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and ARIA Techniques That Scale

Jon Farrell, Perkins School for the Blind

Digital accessibility isn’t achieved through checklists alone. It’s built through everyday design and development decisions. In this fast‑paced, hands‑on session, attendees will learn how HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and ARIA work together to create accessible, resilient interfaces. Through real examples, before‑and‑after code, and interactive micro‑challenges, participants will see how small, intentional changes can dramatically improve usability for all learners.

We’ll explore common accessibility failures in higher‑education digital environments and walk through practical fixes that developers, designers, and content creators can apply immediately. Whether you build course materials, maintain university websites, or develop campus applications, this session will provide actionable techniques for designing, developing, and delivering more inclusive digital experiences.

Attendees will leave with copy‑paste patterns, a clearer mental model of the accessibility tree, and confidence in applying accessibility best practices in their daily work.

B1: Designing and Building Accessible Email Communications

Susan Forte, The New School

Did you know that 99% of emails sent are not accessible? This is particularly an issue in higher education where many communications teams don’t have an email specialist, rely on drag and drop templates that may not be accessible, or don’t know the questions to ask when designing, building, or rebuilding emails and newsletters. Most email accessibility errors are serious or critical. Serious errors prevent people who rely on assistive technology from accessing much of the email content. Critical errors prevent people from accessing most of the email content, and also put organizations at risk. For universities, this can result in the perception that an institution doesn’t care about prospective students, applicants, current students, and families. Errors can also result in a damaged email sender reputation, which affects email deliverability. In this session, you’ll learn how to tell if your emails are accessible, and what to do if they’re not.

C1: Supporting Accessibility Across Languages

Elizabeth Pyatt, Penn State University

Many accessibility specialists are familiar with language tagging, but supporting accessible content across multiple languages involves creating accessible and legible text and ensuring that assistive technologies work in different language environments. This session will review language tagging, the importance of Unicode and legibility considerations across different scripts. We'll also review how language impacts speech recognition, speech synthesis, AI and other tools we use in the modern era.

Session 2: 1:00 PM to 1:45 PM

A2: A11y: A Developer’s Guide to Retrofitting Sites for WCAG Compliance

Leah Grim & Susannah Harris, University of Minnesota

You are a web developer. You completed a full accessibility audit of your site and are overwhelmed with the mountain of issues found. Where do you start? What takes priority?  How do you communicate invisible fixes to stakeholders? This session is a practical and approachable guide to tackle retrofitting Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards.  From thorough testing to high impact design fixes to semantic code enhancements, we present a strategy for developers that makes updates for accessibility both feasible and efficient.

B2: Math Accessibility

Shawn Jordison

This session will explore various techniques for creating accessible math in common authoring programs. It will explore encoding types and usable accessible math workflows. Attendees will leave with a clear workflow for creating accessible equations, an understanding of how screen readers read math, and practical steps for choosing the right format.

C2: Building Confidence Through Better Accessibility Conversations

Fanny Tsai & Somphone Eno, University of California, Irvine

Many accessibility professionals are asked to “help” without a clear model for how accessibility conversations should begin, especially when faculty or staff feel overwhelmed or unsure where to start. This session focuses on building confidence through intentional conversations about accessibility, rather than relying on checklists or enforcement language.

Participants will engage in an accessibility consultation, observing how small shifts in language, framing, and prioritization can reduce anxiety and open pathways to action. Through reflection and discussion, we will unpack what makes accessibility conversations effective and how these approaches can be adapted across different roles and institutional contexts.

Attendees will leave with strategies for conversation and practical framing techniques they can apply immediately to support accessibility work across campus.

Session 3: 2:00 PM to 2:45 PM

A3: Where did my (keyboard) focus go?

Novella Chiechi & Megan Honig, VoiceThread Inc.

Have your users ever struggled to know where they were in an online form? Maybe hit the escape key and couldn’t get rid of an advertising banner? If so, they’re asking a common, frustrating question: Where did my keyboard focus go? This talk will introduce an age-old challenge: Why and when to explicitly handle keyboard focus, when not to, and who benefits. This talk will be appropriate for newer frontend devs (or those new to accessibility), as well as other folks who want a better idea of one of the foundational tools that help make using the web fast, accurate, and predictable.

B3: What's Metadata Got To Do With It?

Griffin Zimmerman, Independent Consulatant, Codocx

Your organization has worked hard to meet accessibility standards on your digital documents, content, and media, but have you ever thought about how a person knows (emphasis) that your content is accessible? Enter accessibility metadata, a set of identifying information that helps a disabled person determine whether they can access a resource. Traditional metadata communicates key details about a resource such as title, author, subject matter, and keywords. Accessibility metadata adds to this information by identifying what accessibility features are present, including features, adaptations, access modes, and potential hazards. In this session, participants will learn how organizations such as the WCAG Publishing Community Group, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), and the Benetech Initiative are standardizing accessibility metadata and how to identify and publish essential metadata on your own organizational documents, content, and media.

C3: Open-Source Web Accessibility Tools from the University of Illinois

Jon Gunderson, University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign

The University of Illinois has developed open source tools to support web accessibility evaluation including AInspector for WCAG Evaluation and Headings, Landmarks and Links browser extensions, and the SkipTo.js utility as a modern replacement for the “Skip To Content” link to improve the experience of people with disabilities using Illinois websites.  The web inspection tools are designed to support people in learning about web accessibility standards and make it easier to view information for manual inspection of accessibility features.  The SkipTo.js utility is a more robust way to implement WCAG 4.2.1 Bypass Blocks requirement by analyzing the landmarks and headings of a web page and building a menu for user to not only navigate to the main content,but also other major sections of the web page identified by the author.