The GAAD Foundation celebrates the 15th Global Accessibility Awareness Day on May 21st, 2026, with global events aimed at challenging tech professionals to build a more accessible digital world for people with disabilities.
LAS VEGAS, May 6, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The GAAD (Global Accessibility Awareness Day) Foundation celebrates the 15th Global Accessibility Awareness Day this month, hosting special events in Bengaluru, London, and New York City. Honored on the third Thursday of May, May 21st this year, the annual event sees activities held worldwide promoting awareness of accessibility gaps and issues, challenging tech professionals and companies to create a more accessible digital world for people with disabilities.
GAAD was created by digital accessibility consultant and AI strategist Joe Devon and internationally recognized digital accessibility leader, Jennison Asuncion. In 2011, the two met for the first time and sought to create a day dedicated to thinking, talking, and learning about digital access and inclusion by and for people with disabilities. Since 2012, GAAD has been celebrated through thousands of public and private events where engineers, designers, and other technologists gain exposure on how to make more accessible and usable digital products. The day has been recognized by organizations of all sizes, Fortune 500s, and tech leaders such as Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Verizon, and by governments around the globe, from the White House to city governments. Some organizations have expanded GAAD to last for the entire month of May.
On the occasion of the 10th GAAD, in 2021, Joe and Jennison co-founded the nonprofit organization, the GAAD Foundation. Its mission is to disrupt the culture of technology and digital product development to include accessibility as a core requirement.
"There are over 1.3 billion people worldwide with disabilities. While the digital world has provided us with amazing access and opportunities, there's still a long way to go to ensure we can fully and independently use all of the sites, apps, and related technology everyone else uses," said Jennison Asuncion. "Accessibility must be a core requirement, owned and accounted for throughout the product development process, reflecting the user experience of people with disabilities."
Responding to the increase in AI models producing the code behind more of the internet, apps, and websites we use, the GAAD Foundation launched the AI Model Accessibility Checker (AIMAC) in partnership with ServiceNow in 2025, creating the industry's first benchmark for evaluating how well AI models generate accessible code. By encouraging accountability and improvement in AI-authored code, the benchmark is helping AI leaders drive toward well-established digital accessibility industry standards.
"GAAD started as a single blog post I wrote in 2011. I never would have imagined that its message would reach hundreds of millions of people across the globe," said Joe Devon. "It's been surreal to see how many people talk about and engage with GAAD each year. But our goal goes beyond this one day. We work year-round through the GAAD Foundation to spread awareness about the need for greater accessibility online, and as AI begins to reshape our digital life, it's more important than ever that accessibility is ingrained from the start in AI models and tools, apps, websites, and the larger digital landscape."
About GAAD
Global Accessibility Awareness Day and the GAAD Foundation were co-founded by Joe Devon and Jennison Asuncion. Held on the third Thursday of each May, the purpose of GAAD is to dedicate the day to thinking, talking, and learning about digital access and inclusion by and for people with disabilities. The mission of the GAAD Foundation is to disrupt the culture of technology and digital product development to include accessibility as a core requirement. Learn more at accessibility.day and gaad.foundation.
Media Contact
Jennifer Laski, GAAD, 1 9178489173, [email protected], https://accessibility.day/
SOURCE GAAD
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