How to celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) when we’re in the middle of assessments here at the University of York? Do it a week earlier when everyone can participate!
14 May saw us celebrating our inaugural University Accessibility Awareness Day (UAAD). We were excited to have Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Kiran Trehan start the day for us as the senior sponsor of our Disability Inclusion Framework at the University. Not only did she deliver a heartfelt and inspiring speech, she persuaded our Vice-Chancellor, Professor Charlie Jeffrey, to come along and share his thoughts about the importance of accessibility inclusion at the university. Thank you, Charlie and Kiran, for showing your support!
Our aim was to ‘grow accessibility awareness’ at the university by sparking conversations and celebrating the good work happening across campus. It was easy bringing the programme together as there is so much good work to showcase. If a small group can do this in 12 weeks, imagine what we can do with more organising volunteers and a full year to plan for next year’s event!
This year’s event was organised by members from the e-Accessibility Working Group and the EDI Office. The diverse and varied programme speaks for itself and we’re so grateful to the following organisations and external speakers for running or sponsoring workshops and sessions for all participants on the day:
External speakers
- Ros Walker, University of St Andrews
- Cordelia Webb, Imperial College, London
All our staff and student speakers and hosts of each session deserve a round of applause as well for sharing their time, knowledge and skills. Our Student Union, Student Hub, Comms team, AV and Facilities team were likewise essential partners for a successful day.
We will soon be sharing recordings for all staff to learn from and enjoy. In the meantime, if you attended the day and have feedback, ideas for next year or would like to join the organising committee, we would love for you to be part of UAAD27!
While you’re waiting for next year’s event, read about the University’s progress in the last year on digital accessibility in Richard Walker’s annual blog post on GAAD.