#70 Accessibility in Digital Media and Digital Content Development with Joe Devon, CEO of Diamond and Co-Founder of Global Accessibility Awareness Day

The Workflow Show

On this episode of The Workflow Show, Ben Kilburg and Jason Whetstone speak to Joe Devon, CEO of Diamond, a product design firm focused on digital accessibility and widening access to digital resources for all. Along with telling the story of co-founding GAAD (Global Accessibility Awareness Day) and The GAAD Foundation, Joe talks about the various ways that companies, content producers, and digital platforms can design and support accessibility within their products. Ben and Jason also ask for advice on changing mindsets in design that start with asking questions about accessibility while starting a project instead of finding the need to respond to issues in the final design.

Episode Highlights:

• Details on how many of the top-visited websites have accessibility issues
• How to utilize HTML, Java, XHTML to the benefit of accessibility and broadening a user base
• What standards of accessibility are needed in digital media and how they’re being addressed
• How to prepare for accessibility needs in the new coming technologies, including VR

More about The GAAD Foundation and Global Accessibility Awareness Day: The GAAD Foundation was launched in 2021 to mark GAAD’s 10th anniversary. Its mission is to disrupt the culture of technology and digital product development to include accessibility as a core requirement. The GAAD Foundation is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to disrupt the culture of technology and digital product development to include accessibility as a core requirement. Thursday, May 19, 2022 is the 11th Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)! The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking, and learning about digital access and inclusion, and the more than One Billion people with disabilities/impairments. Hear about Global Accessibility Awareness Day from co-founder, Jennison Asuncion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rDaw5_PzBU&feature=youtu.be

More about Joe Devon: Joe is a serial entrepreneur who has been fostering the growth of the Los Angeles tech ecosystem since 2008. His experience includes co-founding at Diamond, an inclusive digital agency and co-founder of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). In 2019, Joe and the Diamond team launched their first State of Accessibility Report alongside “Take the GAAD Pledge” a commitment made by organizations and developers to make accessibility a core value of their project. When Joe is not solving technology challenges for major organizations, you can find him on stage influencing every developer and corporation to build their digital products with inclusive design in mind.t#GAADPledge

More GAAD Reading for Developers: Blog: “The GAAD Pledge – Improving React Native Accessibility” by Alexandra Marlette, GAAD Pledge Open Source Accessibility Community Manager for React Native