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