Web Developers celebrate Accessibility Awareness Day globally

Web Developers globally celebrate Accessibility Awareness Day, which was initiated by Joe Devon in 2011 to raise awareness among web developers about making sites accessible. The day falls on the third Thursday of May annually, encouraging developers to test and improve site accessibility, sharing their experience to inspire others.

Back in November 2011, Joe Devon a backend programmer, challenged his colleagues to 

their knowledge regarding accessibility , this is what he said “ Relatively, there isn’t a lot of 

great information about accessibility out there. You really have to seek it out. How many of

you know what JAWS is? After popping up IE6/IE7/IE8 et. al. to ensure website compatibility,

 do you also check your content in a screen reader?

I would argue that it’s more important to make a site accessible than pretty for older 

browsers. For some people, an accessible Internet literally makes a world of difference. 

Although I’m a back end programmer, I’m still ashamed at how little I know. How about you?”

This is how Global Accessibility Day was birthed for particularly web developers across the 

globe to  raise awareness and “know-how” on making sites accessible and it has been 

celebrated every Third Thursday of the month of May. 

On this day, every web developer is urged to test at least one page on their site in an 

accessibility tool. After fixing up the page, they are urged to blog about what they changed 

and inspire others to follow suit.