Guide to Global Accessibility Awareness Day
The San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) recognizes the importance of web accessibility and inclusion – every person, regardless of their ability or device, deserves to experience web-based services and content with the same success as those without disabilities. Global Accessibility Awareness Day is on May 15, 2025, and it began in 2011 to raise awareness about digital access and inclusion for people with disabilities.
About Web Accessibility
Web accessibility occurs when technology, websites, and tools are created so people with disabilities can understand, perceive, maneuver, and contribute to the web. Web accessibility benefits people with auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, speech, and visual disabilities. It also benefits people without disabilities, including those on mobile phones, the elderly, individuals with slow Internet, those with circumstantial limitations, and individuals with temporary disabilities.
- Introduction to Web Accessibility, W3C WAI
- Cognitive Disabilities and the Web: Where Accessibility and Usability Meet?, The National Center on Disability and Access to Education
- Visual Disabilities, WebAIM
- Auditory Disabilities, WebAIM
- Diverse Abilities and Barriers, W3C WAI
Centering Student Voices and User Stories
SDCOE seeks to elevate students’ voices and engage with their experiences in school through listening. This section provides videos about the importance of inclusion, understanding, and accessibility for students and adults with disabilities, learning differences, and impairments.
Watch the SDCOE video panel featuring students with learning differences talking about their experience in school.
Additional video resources include:
- Through Your Child’s Eyes, Understood
- Web Accessibility Perspectives Videos: Explore the Impact and Benefits for Everyone, W3C WAI
Guidelines that Support Accessibility
These guidelines can help create accessible content and keep web accessibility in mind.
- Quick Reference Web Accessibility Principles, WebAIM
- Section 508 Checklist, WebAIM
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, W3C
Creating Accessible Materials in the Classroom
These resources offer a variety of assistive technology tools that can be used to support accessibility and create a more accessible digital experience. Dive into these links to learn how to create accessible materials.
Designing Accessible Learning
- Empowering Inclusive Learning, SDCOE
- Unlocking Accessibility with Ed Tech, SDCOE
- AI-Powered Access: Transforming Educational Experiences, SDCOE
- Accessible Content Creation, SDCOE
- Global Accessibility Awareness Resource Course, SDCOE
- Enhancing Accessibility: Apps, Extensions, and Device Features, SDCOE
- Apps and Extensions for Accessibility, SDCOE
Software Specific Resources
- Contrast Checker, WebAIM
- Create and Verify PDF Accessibility, Adobe
- Raising the Bar on Accessibility, Microsoft
- Make Your PowerPoint Presentations Accessible to People with Disabilities, Microsoft
- Make Your Word Document Accessible to People with Disabilities, Microsoft
- Make Your Document, Presentation, Sheets and Videos More Accessible, Google Docs Editors Help
- Google Workspace for Diverse Learners, Google for Education
Classroom Resources
- AT Resource FlipKit, Open Access; North Inland SELPA
- DCMP Media Center, Described and Captioned Media Program
- Simultaneous Interpretation for Google Meet, web extension from Chrome Web Store
- Use Sign Language View in Microsoft Teams, Microsoft
Books for Students
The following books and book collections highlight the disability experience and the importance of understanding and celebrating differences.
- 15 Books to Celebrate Disability Pride, The New York Public Library
- A Day with No Words by Tiffany Hammond (ages 4-8)
- All the Way to the Top by Annette Bay Pimentel and illustrated by Nabi Ali (ages 4-8)
- It’s OK to be Different: A Children’s Picture Book About Diversity and Kindness (ages 2-6)
- Schneider Family Book Award, American Library Association
- Select Bibliography of Children’s Books about the Disability Experience, American Library Association
- The Abilities in Me Foundation book series (18 books) by Gemma Keir and illustrated by Yevheniia Lisova
- When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson and Iman Geddy (ages 9+)
Universal Design for Learning
Universal design for learning (UDL) is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people and aims to change the design of the environment rather than to change the learner. When environments are intentionally designed to reduce barriers, all learners can engage in rigorous, meaningful learning.
- Universal Design for Learning, CAST
- What is UDL? (video), Novak Educational Consulting
- Universal Design for Learning, SDCOE
- Empowering Inclusive Learning: Leveraging Ed Tech to Meet UDL 3.0, SDCOE
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More to explore
SDCOE has gathered resources to help educators, families, and program staff as they talk to students about global conflicts, including current events in Iran and Israel.
The San Diego County Board of Education Proclaims June 2025 as LGBTQIA+ Pride Month.
More than 70 students from SDCOE school programs found their voice and shared their poetry in an annual event celebrating their work.
San Diego Board of Education designates June 19, 2025, as Juneteenth Independence Day.
On May 17, the Solana Beach School District and the Solana Beach Schools Foundation proudly co-hosted Discovery Fest 2025 at Solana Pacific School. This year’s theme, “Wild Robot Meets Nature’s Wonders,” brought together over 700 students, families, educators, and community members for a fun-filled day celebrating innovation, curiosity, and the natural world.
SDCOE's Migrant Education department celebrated parents through learning opportunities, while children participated in performances and lessons at the 2025 Regional Parent Conference at Palomar College last month.