Wayne State Web Team

Wayne State University Web Team Blog

Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2017, Detroit

# (opens new window)Thursday, May 18, 2017

6:30 PM to 8:30 PM

# Bamboo Detroit (opens new window)

1420 Washington Blvd, Suite 301, Detroit, MI $5.00 /per person

# Event description

Back for the fourth year, Global Accessibility Awareness Day Detroit is a day to gather together to learn about digital accessibility and how to make the web more accessible for everyone. Events will be held around the world (opens new window) to raise awareness about web accessibility.

This year's event is jointly hosted by Refresh Detroit (opens new window) and Ladies That UX Detroit (opens new window).

# Who is this event for?

If you're working on the web, creating, developing, or designing websites or content for others to use, this event is for you! Or if you want to learn how we can work together to make the web accessible to everyone, we'd love for you to attend.

For our event, we've invited two local experts to talk about the importance of planning for accessibility in your design project and how to use an automated accessibility testing tool.

# Agenda

6:30pm to 7:00pm: Welcome, food, refreshments, and networking 7:00pm to 7:10pm: Introductions 7:10pm to 8:20pm: Presentations 8:20pm to 8:30pm: Announcements and thanks to sponsor 8:30pm: Time to leave

# Presentations

**Design Before Code: Thinking About Accessibility from the Ground Up ** Caitlin Geier, UX Designer at Deque Systems

Think about accessibility when designing: don't wait till it's coded!  Caitlin will offer accessibility tips for designers so that time will be saved in development.

Introduction to aXE Matt Isner, JavaScript Developer at Deque Systems

Learn how to check the accessibility of your web projects with aXe, a free Chrome extension and open source JavaScript accessibility testing engine.

# Speakers

# Caitlin Geier

As a UX designer, Caitlin’s work with accessible design flourished once she began working for Deque. She is passionate about understanding the users she’s designing for.

Caitlin continually strives to incorporate accessibility elements into her work in order to ensure that all users can benefit from inclusive design.

# Matt Isner

Matt specializes in teaching development teams to plan, test, and code for accessibility and has helped orchestrate large remediation efforts of complex enterprise applications.

He is intrigued by the idea of the computer system as an expression of human neurobiology, and champions the notion that accessible web content is better understood by both humans and computers.

Deque Systems (opens new window) is a leading provider of web and mobile accessibility software and services. Our mission is digital equality, and the Deque team consists of leaders and innovators in accessibility and testing tools development.

We strive to provide practical accessibility solutions that reflect real-world development environments, and we work with a broad range of clients to not only fix their inaccessible content but to integrate accessibility into their existing design and development processes through the use of automation and training. Not sure about your site’s accessibility? Check it with aXe (opens new window).