Celebrating the 13th Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)

Today marks the 13th annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), a pivotal event dedicated to promoting awareness and education about digital accessibility and inclusion for people with disabilities. At Green Orbit Digital, we are passionate about ensuring that our digital platforms are accessible to all, aligning with our core values of sustainability, collaboration, work-life balance, innovation, responsibility, and commitment.

Understanding Digital Accessibility

Digital accessibility refers to the practice of making digital content and applications usable by people with disabilities. This means ensuring websites, mobile apps, and other digital tools are navigable and functional for all users, regardless of their physical, sensory, or cognitive abilities. It’s about breaking down barriers and fostering inclusivity.

State of Accessibility: Insights from the WebAIM Million Report (2024)

The WebAIM Million Report 2024 analysed one million home pages for accessibility issues and uncovered some startling statistics:

• 95.9% of home pages had detected WCAG 2 failures
• 22.2% of pages had 5 or fewer detected errors and 31.2% had 10 or fewer

These figures highlight the widespread inaccessibility of web content, which affects millions of users with disabilities worldwide.

The Global Impact of Inaccessibility

From both a civil rights and a business perspective, digital inaccessibility is a critical issue. Approximately 1 billion people globally have disabilities, meaning a significant portion of the population is potentially excluded from fully engaging with digital products. Ensuring accessibility is not just a legal and ethical imperative; it’s also a business one.

Common Disabilities and How to Address Them

1. Visual: People who are blind or have low vision rely on screen readers and alternative text descriptions for images. They often use keyboards instead of mice.
2. Hearing: People who are deaf or hard of hearing need captions for videos and visual indicators instead of audio cues.
3. Motor: Individuals with motor impairments may use alternative keyboards, eye-tracking devices, or other adaptive technologies.
4. Cognitive: Clear, uncluttered design, consistent navigation, and plain language help those with cognitive disabilities.

Benefits of Accessibility

Inclusive design and development remove barriers, making digital content accessible to everyone. This approach not only enhances user experience for people with disabilities but also improves overall usability and satisfaction for all users.

Our Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Policies

At Green Orbit Digital, we are proud to uphold robust Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion policies. We seek to ensure that every employee, partner, and client is treated with respect and given equal opportunities, fostering an inclusive environment where diverse perspectives thrive.

Our Commitment to Accessibility

We are dedicated to improving the accessibility of our digital content by:

• Reviewing website templates: We aim to eliminate all issues with WCAG 2.1 AA compliance on our main pages.
• Monitoring and updating older content: Using Google Analytics, we will identify and address accessibility issues in older content.

This is an ongoing process, and we welcome input from our users to help us enhance our website’s accessibility. By working together, we can ensure a more inclusive digital world.

As we celebrate GAAD, let’s all commit to making our digital spaces accessible for everyone. Join us in this mission and help create a world where everyone can engage fully and independently with digital content.