Access is Critical for People with Disabilities

May 12, 2025 1327 0 0

“Accessibility allows us to tap into everyone’s potential.” – Debra Ruh, founder, TecAcess

I want to extend a heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone who donated to this year’s Big Day of Giving. Thanks to you, we surpassed our goal of $30,000, raising $80,992 for our Low Vision Clinic! These contributions will make it possible for people living with vision loss to access eye care, occupational therapy and adaptive devices, enabling them to use their remaining vision safely and effectively.

Speaking of access, May 15 is Global Accessibility Awareness Day. To promote better access, Society for the Blind, together with the CA Braille and Talking Book Library and North State Assistive Technology, hosted a Resource and Technology Fair on April 26. More than 200 people attended this event held at Society with 20 vendors on hand to demonstrate assistive devices and tools that give people with vision loss and blindness greater access to online content.

Even with the amazing developments in technology and artificial intelligence, many websites and other digital content are not accessible for people with vision loss. Digital accessibility is crucial, ensuring people with disabilities or impairments can independently consume and/or interact with digital applications and content. A survey by WebAIM found that 94.8% of homepages had at least 1 WCAG (web content accessibility guidelines) failure. The leading WCAG failures are:

Low contrast content
Missing alternative text for images
Missing form inputs
Empty links or buttons

The goal of Global Accessibility Awareness Day is to ensure that people with disabilities can experience web-based services, content and other digital products with the same successful outcomes as those without disabilities.

We are grateful to everyone who contributes their time, expertise and resources to make it possible for Society for the Blind to achieve its mission to empower individuals living with low vision or blindness to discover, develop and achieve their full potential.

Categories: Shari's Vision