By Elizabeth Barker, Sr. Technical Program Manager, Accessibility
Every May, I’m reminded that two things can be true at once.
My son turned 17 this year—not quite an adult but definitely no longer a child—and I’ve never felt more ready to let go and more determined to hold on. That’s May for me: duality. The flowers are blooming and we’re still covering the plants at night. The calendar is full of birthdays, Mother’s Day, Mental Health Awareness Month, Memorial Day, celebration, and reflection—all in the same breath.
And right in the middle of it all: Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD).
What is Global Accessibility Awareness Day?
Global Accessibility Awareness Day exists for one reason: to get people talking, thinking, and learning about digital access and inclusion.
More than a billion people worldwide live with some form of disability—a billion potential users, colleagues, students, and community members who may be shut out of digital experiences the rest of us take for granted.
At Khan Academy, GAAD isn’t just a calendar event. It’s a moment to hold up a mirror, celebrate how far we’ve come, honestly reckon with how far we still need to go, and recommit to building products that work for everyone.
This year, we went all in.
The origins of GAAD
You can’t talk about GAAD without mentioning web developer Joe Devon, who helped launch the movement in 2011 with a simple challenge: encourage developers around the world to learn about and prioritize accessibility.
That spirit of challenge and continuous improvement is exactly what drives accessibility work at Khan Academy today.
Engineering Manager and Accessibility Architect Jeanette Head has long been a leading voice for accessibility at Khan Academy, and this year she once again helped shape our GAAD celebration. Her kickoff presentation captured what GAAD is really about: showing that celebration and accountability are equally important.
How we celebrated GAAD at Khan Academy
Like May itself, our GAAD celebration inspired two things at once: moments to stop and reflect and moments to roll up our sleeves and get to work.
So we built a full day in which we alternated between honoring the real experiences of our users and taking hands-on action to improve those experiences. True to the spirit of duality, we started exactly where you’d expect: by looking back before we looked forward.
Jeanette opened the day by honoring our wins and setting our sights higher. As a team, we took stock of the accessibility milestones we hit over the past year, the fixes shipped, the patterns improved, and the voices heard, and then we turned to look ahead, setting clear, ambitious goals for the year to come.
Celebrating progress isn’t self-congratulation; it’s fuel. It’s what reminds you that the work is real, that it matters, and that there’s more of it worth doing.
Experiencing our product with assistive technology
Darrell Hilliker, who is a member of our team, is a native screen reader and a refreshable-braille-display user. He walked us through exactly where our product shines and exactly where it falls short. No simulation, no hypothetical. Just an honest, firsthand perspective from someone who navigates the web this way every day. This is the most powerful kind of feedback there is.
No-mouse challenge: keyboard accessibility in action
One of the most eye-opening moments of our GAAD celebration was the No Mouse Challenge led by accessibility advocate Sr. Engineer Marcy Sutton Todd. It’s a global initiative that asks you to do something deceptively simple: put down your mouse and navigate using only your keyboard.
Participants relied entirely on these keys:
- Tab
- Shift + Tab
- Arrow keys
- Enter
- Escape
That’s it.
What may sound manageable to some people in the short term quickly reveals how many digital experiences are tricky for people who navigate this way every day—users with mobility or dexterity disabilities for whom a mouse isn’t an option.
As we worked through our own product keyboard-only, we started noticing keyboard traps, missing focus indicators, and bugs we hadn’t seen before.
The discomfort we felt for that short stretch of time is the permanent reality for many of our users.
But for those who need support beyond a keyboard, the current assistive-technology landscape is actually remarkable, from devices controlled by head movement to switches triggered by any consistent physical motion. Therefore, it’s all the more important that what we build actually works.
Big Bug Bash
We closed the day with a Big Bug Bash focused entirely on accessibility.
A curated list of accessibility bugs was left open for anyone to tackle, from seasoned engineers to folks brand-new to accessibility work. The message was simple: pick something that piques your interest, learn what you need to learn, and ship a fix.
Accessibility experts were available throughout the day to do the following:
- Help identify bugs.
- Explain accessibility patterns and best practices.
- Review fixes.
- Test solutions before launch.
It was part hackathon, part open office hours—and one of the most tangible ways to turn awareness into action.
By the end of the day, a few things had occured:
- More than 20 accessibility bugs had been fixed.
- Changes were made so that real users would have a better experience.
- More teammates gained hands-on accessibility knowledge.
That’s what makes GAAD meaningful: awareness paired with action.
Why digital accessibility matters
GAAD is exciting. GAAD is fun. GAAD is necessary.
And just like May straddles winter and spring, just like that strange and tender space my son occupies between childhood and adulthood, GAAD lives in the in-between. It sits at the intersection of where we are and where we need to be: honest about the gap but also energized by the distance we’ve already traveled. It shows how celebration and accountability are both important without letting either one go.
We celebrate GAAD because accessibility isn’t a feature or a widget. It’s a practice. Like any practice, it gets stronger the more you do it together, out loud, and with intention.
We can’t wait to see what we build next.
