Last year, I started working for my current employer just weeks before Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2022. I wasn’t involved much in the planning of that event. But for GAAD 2023? I was all in. So much so, I was even flown out to HQ in New Jersey for my first business trip since before the pandemic. It was wonderful to meet many of my colleagues for the first time after working with them for over a year.
In my role of Principal Accessibility Engineer, I have been able to grow our program this past year. Beyond our Product and UX teams. Colleagues across the company have had more accessibility questions both general and specific. In addition to the a11y course we deliver to devs, I created a general accessibility overview course for all onboarding employees. I hope to expand that offering to include all employees eventually.
Likewise, for GAAD this year we wanted to include everyone. We pulled panelists from Legal, DEI, Technical Writing, and Product. To discuss how far the company has come on its accessibility journey, and where we’d like to grow. Hence the Progress Not Perfection theme. We also partnered with the mission-driven Knowbility for our keynote which covered everything from industry trends to creating accessible content. And our team in India held their own event complete with demonstrations, activities, prizes, and lunch. Feels great to have another successful GAAD outreach event in the books!
