On behalf of ACB, I would like to thank both Jennison and Mike for sharing their time, experience, and wisdom with us.
Jennison Asuncion is not only the co-founder of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) he is also currently the head of accessibility for LinkedIn. And Mike Shebanek is a long-time pioneer in the space of digital accessibility and currently leads Accessibility for Facebook.
Today (May 20th, 2021) is GAAD's 10th anniversary and I would like to share with you the discussion we had today during our live event.
Please use this link if you were unable to attend and participate during our live broadcast, I would appreciate it if you would check it out and share it with your networks, collaborators and friends, and family.
I was asked earlier this week what GAAD means to me and what my hope is for the work that we do on this day to bring awareness to the need for more accessible inclusion for our community.
I answered that I want it all.
I want those who are blind or visually impaired to be able to have equal standing and access to information, products, and experiences in our daily life. I want organizations, product developers, and city planners to include our needs and requirements as they create, plan and launch all improvements within their scope.
So please, join me and the members of the ACB community as we re-commit to advocating for accessibility and raise awareness about the very timely importance of GAAD after 10 years to our organization.
Today the registration for the 2021 ACB Convention is now open at https://acbconvention.org, we will be coming together virtually from July 16 through July 23, 2021.
This year's convention will include a robust conference agenda to provide our attendees and members with carefully curated topics, speakers and networking sessions from our affiliates and industry experts from across the country to capture the highlights and achievements of the past year and plan for the goals of tomorrow together.
We hope that you will register and join us to be a part of the conversation. To learn more about ACB, to donate or to become a member, please visit www.acb.org.
Thank you,
Eric Bridges, Executive Director of the American Council of the Blind
GAAD is an annual, grassroots effort inviting the broader, high-tech community around the world to participate in in-person and virtual activities intended to raise awareness of digital accessibility issues that people with different disabilities encounter.
The American Council of the Blind is a national grassroots consumer organization representing Americans who are blind and visually impaired. With 68 affiliates, ACB strives to increase the independence, security, equality of opportunity, and to improve quality of life for all blind and visually impaired people.
On Thursday, May 20th, at 1pm EST, the American Council of the Blind hosted a special 10th-anniversary celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). ACB's Executive Director Eric Bridges led a conversation with digital accessibility leaders Jennison Asuncion and Mike Shebanek. Together, Eric, Jennison and Mike took a look back at the growth taken place over the past decade in digital accessibility and forecast what new challenges and opportunities rest just beyond the horizon.
Co-founder of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Jennison Asuncion, currently serves as the Head of Accessibility for LinkedIn. GAAD is an annual, grassroots effort inviting the broader, high-tech community around the world to participate in in-person and virtual activities intended to raise awareness of digital accessibility issues that people with different disabilities encounter.
A long-time pioneer in the space of digital accessibility, Mike Shebanek currently leads Accessibility for Facebook. A co-founder of the Teach-Access movement while at Yahoo, Mike revolutionized the field earlier when he introduced while at Apple the Voiceover text-to-speech application, which was included for free in Mac OS and IOS devices.
A recording of this live event is available on ACB's Facebook Page and on YouTube.
Host:
Eric Bridges: Executive Director of American Council of the Blind
Participants:
Jennison Asuncion: Head of Accessibility Engineering Evangelism at LinkedIn
Mike Shebanek: Head of Accessibility at Facebook