15 Years of GAAD: built by community, driven by inclusion

This year marks the 15th anniversary of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), and it has given me an opportunity to reflect not only on my career in accessibility, but also on my own lived experience as someone who is limb different.

Accessibility has never been just part of my job. It has always been personal.

Growing up limb different shaped the way I experienced the world long before I ever worked in technology. It taught me early on that environments, products, and systems are often designed around assumptions of what people “should” be able to do. Sometimes those barriers were physical. Sometimes they were digital. Often, they were invisible to everyone except the people experiencing them.

In 2011, when my contract ended at Bell Canada, I found myself at a turning point professionally and personally. What I remember most from that time is not uncertainty, but community. It was the accessibility community in Toronto that showed up for me in ways I will never forget. Attending accessibility meetups gave me a sense of belonging, offering support, encouragement, opportunities to learn, and space to grow. That experience shaped the trajectory of my career and deepened my commitment to accessibility work in a way that still grounds me today.

This year’s GAAD theme, “Design. Develop. Deliver.” resonates deeply because accessibility cannot exist as a single checkpoint or conversation. It must be woven into every stage of creating experiences that people rely on every day.

Design: inclusion starts with intention

As someone who has navigated a world not always designed with disability in mind, I know how meaningful it feels when inclusion is considered from the start. Accessible design is about more than meeting standards or passing audits. It is about intentionally creating experiences where people feel included, respected, and independent.

Some of the best accessibility work I’ve seen happens when teams move beyond designing for compliance and start designing for people. That shift changes conversations, builds empathy, and challenges assumptions. When accessibility is prioritized early in design, everyone benefits.

Develop: accessibility is built through collaboration

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside incredibly passionate product managers, designers, developers, testers, researchers, and advocates who genuinely want to make technology better.

Accessibility work can sometimes feel overwhelming because there will always be more to improve. What continues to inspire me is seeing how much progress happens when people come together with curiosity, humility, and a willingness to learn.

I’ve watched accessibility evolve from being treated as an afterthought to becoming part of larger product and business conversations. Teams today are asking better questions, involving disabled voices earlier, and recognizing that accessibility improves experiences for everyone. That progress may be more difficult to quantify, but its qualitative impact is significant.

Deliver: accessibility must work in real life

For disabled people, accessibility is never theoretical, which is why delivery matters so much. It impacts whether we can independently complete tasks, participate in conversations, access information, or feel included in experiences others may take for granted.

Accessible experiences cannot stop at good intentions, roadmap discussions, or polished demos. They have to work consistently in the real world for real people using different devices, assistive technologies, and ways of interacting.

As someone with lived experience, I know how impactful it is when accessibility is done well and how exhausting it can be when it is overlooked.

Looking ahead...

One of the things I appreciate most about GAAD is the sense of community it represents. Over the years, I’ve met many people across the accessibility space, including advocates, professionals, allies, and people with disabilities who continue pushing this work forward every day. Those connections have shaped not only my career, but also how I think about leadership, inclusion, and what it means to build meaningful products.

Fifteen years later, accessibility conversations are happening earlier and more often than they once did. There is still a long way to go, but there is also real momentum.

As we mark this milestone anniversary, human-centered inclusive design reminds us that accessibility is not just about technology or compliance. It’s about people feeling seen, included, and able to fully participate, and that is work worth continuing to design, develop, and deliver together.