LVPEI hosts Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) 2024 with a focus on “Practical Accessibility”
Hyderabad : The Institute for Vision Rehabilitation at the LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) and the HelloA11Y Community jointly organized the Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) 2024, advocating for Inclusive Digital Environments, with focus on practical accessibility.
The event attended by over 125 participants included vision rehabilitation and technology professionals, individuals with vision impairments, their families, and other professionals actively engaged in the field. The event provided participants with valuable insights into creating more accessible websites, e-commerce sites and PDFs, enabling the creation of a more inclusive digital environment, for all. It served as a platform for meaningful dialogue and collaboration.
“We are thrilled to have hosted such a successful event in collaboration with the HelloA11Y Community,” said Dr. Beula Christy, Network Associate Director – Vision Rehabilitation at the Institute for Vision Rehabilitation. “By bringing together experts and stakeholders, we aim to drive forward the conversation around accessibility and foster tangible actions towards a more inclusive society,” she elaborated.
Global Accessibility Awareness Day serves as a critical reminder of the ongoing need to prioritize accessibility in all aspects of digital design and development. Initiatives like these not only raise awareness but also inspire concrete steps towards building a more inclusive world for everyone.
The program featured enlightening talks delivered by a diverse panel of speakers from Barrier Break, APEX Covantage, Graillemaker Innovations, HelloA11Y, and DigitalA11Y. These esteemed speakers shared their expertise and insights on accessibility, contributing significantly to a deeper understanding of building an inclusive society.
The talks included: Empowering Web-Accessibility through Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Samir Dash explored how AI-powered solutions can revolutionize accessibility by identifying common barriers and offering innovative fixes. He demonstrated how AI technologies can fix existing accessibility challenges in real time with lower upfront cost thereby making the internet truly inclusive and accessible to everyone.
Samir is a UX designer and product innovation consultant with over 17 years of experience across various industries. He holds patents in AR/VR interaction and data encryption and is a globally awarded designer and author.
Addressing Accessibility Challenges in Remediating Shopify Websites
Prem Nawaz delved into the critical issues surrounding web accessibility within the context of Shopify websites. From understanding the barriers faced by diverse user groups to implementing effective remediation strategies, attendees gained valuable insights and practical solutions for ensuring inclusivity and compliance in e-commerce platforms.
Prem Nawaz is a Digital Accessibility Specialist with a wealth of experience, previously serving as an Accessibility Evangelist at PayPal. He has received the Universal Design Awards for his contributions to accessibility.
Accessibility Testing – User First Approach
The session focussed on an important aspect of manual accessibility testing – “User first approach”.
Siddharaj is an IAAP certified Web accessibility specialist with 6 years of hands-on experience and has conducted trainings on a range of topics in this space.
Gayatri Radhakrishna Murthy is a Senior Accessibility Tester at Barrierbreak with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and Engineering. As a person with low vision, she is passionate about ensuring digital platforms are accessible for all users.
Demo of Spacefelt, a smartphone based QR labelling application
Designed for individuals with visual impairments, the application helps users access information about a location, its layout, and directions on scanning Spacefelt acrylic QR labels to help them navigate public spaces. It can also be used to label personal belongings. The session was facilitated by T.V. Aishwarya, Co-Founder and Product Lead of Grailmaker Innovations, the startup behind Spacefelt.
The physical version of Spacefelt was first piloted at the Institute for Vision Rehabilitation, LVPEI in August 2022, making it the first institute to offer such a facility. Spacefelt was also used at Purple Fest 2023 by the Disabled Welfare Department of Goa to make the event venue accessible. Recently, it was also used to enhance accessibility at an art gallery by providing audio descriptions of the paintings through QR labels, for visitors with visual impairment.
Enhancing Document Accessibility: The Journey through Tagging, AI, and Deep Learning
The session shed light on the imperative journey of accessibility in documents. Ram emphasized the significance of tagging, element description, screen readers, and accessibility reports, highlighting their pivotal role in ensuring inclusivity. Abhijeet delved into the role of AI, particularly Deep Learning Algorithms (DLA), in revolutionizing document accessibility. Their combined insights underscore the fusion of traditional methods with cutting-edge AI technologies to make documents universally accessible.
Abhijeet is an Associate Vice President – Technology at Apex CoVantage with extensive experience in the publishing industry. He specializes in digitization, eBooks, accessibility, HTML/XML, and prepress projects.
Ramkumar Manikka Kuppusamy is an Accessibility Project Manager at Apex with 4 years of experience in document remediation and 17 years of hands-on experience in various digital fields.
Through shared knowledge and experiences, attendees gained valuable insights into strategies for creating a more accessible and inclusive digital environment for all.