Global Accessibility Awareness Day: May 18, 2017
Global Accessibility Awareness Day is coming up this week on Thursday, May 18, 2017. The purpose of GAAD is to “get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital (web, software, mobile, etc.) access/inclusion and people with different disabilities”.
GAAD was inspired by a blog post written by Joe Devon, who proposed creating a day where “every web developer will be 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.” Read the inspiring blog post here.
All over the world, technology communities are holding Global Accessibility Awareness Day events, talks and workshops. You can see a partial list of these events on the GAAD Events page.
If you are not able to attend a live or virtual event, here are a few suggestions of ways you can take part by testing on of your own sites:
- Take the #NoMouse Challenge — try using a website without using a mouse. Many disabilities make using a mouse impossible to navigate through a website.
- Check for Sufficient Color Contrast — check your webpage to see if there is suffient color contrast. For this year’s challenge, I’m planning on trying the color contrast analyzer by The Paciello Group or by Web AIM on one of my websites.
- Use the WAVE — Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool to test your site for web accessibility.
Visit the GAAD site to learn more.
Design Week Portland
Design Week Portland (DWP) is great!
“Design Week Portland is a week-long, city-wide series of programs exploring the process, craft, and practice of design across all disciplines.”
Portland’s creative community has held this event for the last five years. An impressive variety of talks, workshops, exhibitions, studio tours and more are presented. Although I’ve only attended a few of these sessions so far, I’m impressed with the quality of the work presented, the knowledge being shared and the welcoming, collaborative “feel” of the local design community.
The mission of DWP “is to increase appreciation and awareness about design and its far-reaching effects on matters of cultural and social relevance, including community development, education systems, and the economy.”
Design Week Portland runs through Saturday, April 29th. Learn more about this event.
Emotional Design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things
The most recent book I’ve read was Donald A. Norman’s Emotional Design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things. Norman provides “evidence that aesthetically pleasing objects enable you to work better”.
When designing products, utility, usability, function and form are important considerations. In addition, all products contain visceral, behavioral, and reflective design components. These influence the emotions we “feel” towards products — whether we end up “loving” or “hating” them.
Visceral design is the aesthetics or “how something looks”. Often this is what first attracts someone to a product. Reactions can range from “wow”, “cool”, “beautiful” or even a negative “ugly”.
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