Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)

There's always plenty to say about the visual design and technological aspects of accessibility, a lot can be found in our blog. So, for GAAD this year, we are going to share our experience of working with words and images.

At Nexer, content has always been important to us. Some of our longest serving staff members (including the MD) started their careers as writers. In Lisa, Will and Justin, we now have a dedicated content team and on GAAD the three of us are delighted to be focussing on the "C" in WCAG - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

We’ll be presenting a short film alongside an afternoon of talks and discussion which will help you to understand and create more accessible content. You’ll learn how to reduce the barriers between your content and the human beings in your audience.

What to expect

Content accessibility in practical terms - Holly Scott-Gardner

In the opening talk Holly will share her experiences accessing digital products including websites as a screen reader user, demonstrating what works well and where the digital landscape can be inaccessible to blind people. Holly is a writer, disability rights advocate, postgraduate student in the field of social and public policy at the University of Leeds and a trainee usability assessor within the third sector.

Alt-text as poetry - Justin Darley

In 2020, a report from WebAIM analysed one million home pages for accessibility issues and found that 66% were missing image alt-text. In this presentation, Justin will be taking a creative look at the importance of alt-text. Justin manages the Nexer Digital content design team. He leads and actively participates in user research as well as stakeholder, content and co-design workshops.

The importance of plain language - William Caston Cook

Good content has tangible goals and helps users to take action. In our third talk, William explains the importance of plain language in accessible and usable content. William is a content designer with over a decade of editorial and writing experience. He has always been fascinated by the intersection of human beings and technology. 

Dyslexia as an online durational experience - Lisa Matthews

Dyslexia is a complex set of challenges. It can be a superpower and a curse. Dyslexia can help people to see the world in creative ways; but it can also render some things in life invisible and/or confusing. Using poetry and some digital tools our content designer, Lisa , will try – for the very first time - to create one of her most common lived experiences as a dyslexic content designer. Lisa is a dyslexic content designer with a background in business information and publishing. Trained in the late 80s as a tactile designer, she is an established UK Creative Writing scholar who has published/co-authored nearly a dozen books. Passionate about the potential of words, language and poetics in human-centred design Lisa joined the Nexer team last year after running her own content business for over a decade.

Our Panel

After we show our new film #AccessMeans, our speakers will take part in a short panel discussion, hosted by our managing director Hilary Stephenson, where there will be an opportunity to ask questions.

#AccessMeans: a chorus of voices explaining what accessibility means to them - Molly Watt

Molly specialises in assistive technology and designing for those with a sensory impairment. Together with Nexer's wider team, Molly delivers accessibility training across private, not-for-profit and public sector organisations. Molly produced our #AccessMeans film to encourage others to share their stories.

You can sign up for the event on our Eventbrite page.