Celebrating International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2025
In 1992, the United Nations General Assembly (GA) marked 3 December as the International Day of Disabled Persons (IDPwD). (1) This day is an opportunity to reflect on how we can create a more inclusive and equitable society for the 5.5 million Australians living with disability. (2) The 2025 theme, ‘fostering disability-inclusive societies for advancing social progress,’ challenges us to look beyond good intentions and ask: What are we doing, to make inclusion real?
At ARTD, collaboration and compassion are at the heart of our organisational values. Recently, some colleagues and I attended a two-part training led by accessibility expert and ARTD Associate, Lyndall Thomas. As the newly appointed marketing assistant, I came into the session with limited experience in accessibility. My tertiary studies had only brushed the surface (although looking back, this really should be essential), and in my previous roles, accessibility was seen as a sort of checklist, making sure there was enough contrast between colours, sticking to easy-to-read fonts, and, of course, alt text when necessary.
During the training, Lyndall unpacked the intricacies of accessible design and report writing by giving examples of how people with different disabilities experience and access documents and some of the challenges they encounter when things aren’t accessible. She walked through features in Word and Adobe that make a real difference for users – proper heading structures, accessible tables, and built-in features that flag possible barriers. I was impressed to see how these platforms have embedded accessibility in their core functions, and with the emergence of AI, I’m hopeful we’ll see even more tools to support inclusive design.
One of the standout parts of the session was being introduced to screen readers. Until then, I’d never actually heard content being read aloud or truly thought about what it’s like to navigate a document without being able to see it. For me, the experience was like trying to find my way around a familiar space, like my own home – but with the lights turned off. I relied on new cues: the order things are described, the clarity of the labels, the logical flow. Every heading, every link, every image description matters so much more.
After the session, I downloaded a screen reader and gave one of my own documents a try (a truly humbling experience, and possibly a bit frantic, if you’d heard me muttering at my computer). Navigating with transcription was harder than I expected. It didn’t take long for me to spot places I could improve. The layouts I had taken pride in quickly lacked meaning once the visuals disappeared.
My key takeaways:
- Never assume your experience is universal. What’s accessible for you, might be completely unusable for someone else. It’s easy to overlook barriers when you’re prepping your own work, so I’ve started making a conscious effort to check my documents using the built-in accessibility features available – and, when possible, ask colleagues to review what I’ve created. At ARTD, we’re fortunate to have key members of our team who are experts in this, as well as help from Lyndall.
- Screen readers, screen readers, screen readers. Hearing a document read aloud will change your perspective on how important alt text, logical heading order, and descriptive links really are. Phrases like ‘click here’ and ‘tap for more’ don’t provide any context for someone using a screen reader (and for marketers, that one stings).
- WCAG standards are your friend. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) should be used as a toolkit rather than a checklist. Free, online tools like WAVE and Axe DevTool help you check in real time if you’re meeting these standards, often revealing obstacles you would normally miss.
- It’s okay not to know everything, but it’s not okay not to try. What might seem like a ‘nice-to-have’ to you could be essential for someone else and ultimately, determine their ability to comprehend the document.
As I’m still new to this space, I’m committed to learning (and unlearning) along the way. I think this quote from Stevie Wonder sums up the spirit of this year’s #IDPwD well: ‘We need to make every single thing accessible to every single person with a disability.’ Here are a few resources I’ve found helpful in my journey so far:
- WebAIM – Screen Reader User Survey: A window into how people use screen readers and highlights some of the real-world issues they encounter online.
- Vision Australia – Access Technology: Practical advice and support for understanding and using assistive technology.
- W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI): Clear guidelines and tools for checking and improving accessibility.
How are you building accessibility into your evaluation work and communications?
References:
(1) https://www.idpwd.com.au/about/about-idpwd/
