In recognition of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) on May 20th, 2021, here are five accessibility facts to be aware of!
GAAD is 10 years old
This year’s GAAD is its 10th iteration! Read about GAAD and join some accessibility events!
15% of the world is disabled
According to the WHO World Report on Disability, about 15% of the world’s population has some form of disability. That’s over a billion people!
97% of websites have automatically-detectable accessibility errors
The WebAIM Million is an annual accessibility analysis of the top million home pages on the web. This year they found that 97.4% of home pages had automatically-detectable accessibility errors. We can all work towards improving this figure by learning about accessibility and applying it at work!
At least 23 countries have government policies related to web accessibility
Many countries have adopted or are in the process of adopting WCAG in legislation. Take some time to see what accessibility laws apply to your work. The W3C WAI’s list of Web Accessibility Laws & Policies is a great starting point.
57% of accessibility issues can be identified by automated testing
Deque reports that 57% of accessibility issues can be identified with automated testing. That’s a great start, but manual testing is essential for identifying the remaining accessibility issues. Test your projects using keyboard navigation and a screen reader. Try starting with NVDA for Windows and VoiceOver for MacOS. Engage disabled user testers directly or through services like AccessWorks and Fable.