Did you know that approximately 20% of adults in the U.S. have some form of disability?

It stands to reason, then, that many of our UCOP colleagues and clients also have a disability, or care for loved ones with a disability. And, sometimes it’s hard to tell whether someone has a disability just by looking at them. Common disabilities include:

• Hearing loss
• Low vision
• Dyslexia
• Speech impairment
• Physical and mobility challenges
• Emotional or psychological concerns

To ensure that everyone can access workplace materials and resources — including documents, websites, signage, equipment or buildings — we must work to ensure that everything we produce is accessible.

May 20 is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) — a perfect time to learn more about accessibility and the needs of colleagues with disabilities. Here’s how to participate.

Get new perspective with five fun videos

• Using a screen reader to read websites. A blind UCSF employee shows how he uses screen reader software to read a website and why it’s important to design websites for accessibility.
• Navigating campus in a wheelchair. Three UCLA students take wheelchairs around campus and reflect on their experiences.
• Understanding different disabilities. Three differently abled children describe what they’re good at doing.
• What movies with no captions are like. A movie fan spends a lot of money to see a 3D film only to discover there’s no sound! (Note this video is purposefully not captioned to stress a point.)
• Diversish Awards. Several companies are given a spoof award for being diverse-ish when they don’t include differently abled people in their diversity programs.

Tune into a webinar: Accessibility Is for Everyone!

The systemwide Electronic Accessibility Committee is hosting a GAAD webinar on May 20, from 10 – 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time. UC colleagues from several locations will show that each of us can do something to promote accessibility. The webinar will be fast-paced, with 15-minute sessions on topics including:

• Empathy lab featuring differently-abled UC students and staff
• Tips for making documents, videos and websites accessible
• Lesson on how to caption videos
• Advice for buying accessible technology

Register for the GAAD webinar

Take online classes

UC offers free online training in topics related to accessibility. Popular courses include:

• General Digital Accessibility Principles
• Making Accessible PDFs
• Accessibility for Content Contributors
• Accessible Documents
• Accessible Multimedia
• Accessible Purchasing

Consider your language

Note: There are varying views about the proper terminology to refer to people with disabilities or who are differently-abled and, of course, language evolves. The following articles on this topic support using the term “people with disabilities.”

• National Center on Disability and Journalism, Disability Language Style Guide
• Center for Disability Rights, Inc., 4 Disability Euphemisms that Need to Bite the Dust
• Brown University, Student Accessibility Services, Appropriate Terminology

For questions, contact Yvonne.Tevis@ucop.edu.

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