global accessibility awareness day presentation @ facebook
TRANSCRIPT
The Story of
From web developer to co-founderof a global movement
GAAD a11y tech camp @ Facebook May 14, 2014
Hello. My name is Joe Devon
Circa 2007, I was a Freelance Dev in NY.
Big tech scene. Lots of meetups.
Studied my craft voraciously.
@joedevon
One day, I stumbled upon a video by Yahoo! programmer Victor Tsaran
Moved to Los Angeles
Got a gig @ AmericanIdol.com. Unfortunately, no tech scene in L.A.!
Dad @ JPLSpeaker of 10 languages. Survivor of Auschwitz & Dachau. He lost much of his hearing & eyesight.
Blog post that inspired GAAD
Guess who winds up speaking at 1st GAAD event in Los Angeles?
Success of GAAD, Year One
• GAAD made my hometown paper• Gov’ts & Corps ran events, blogged & tweeted• Appeared in podcasts, magazines
Alas, next year wouldn’t be so easy
My Dad passed away February 16, 2013.
Year Two
• Mindy designed a new logo…• which made front cover of .Net Magazine• FCC blog post & #GAAD tweets all day• #GAAD had a tweet a minute!• More engagement than I could have ever
imagined. • I guess we hit on something
GAAD comes full circle
Remember the bank whose unusable interface inspired my post?
Twist of Fate
Developers & designers have
monumental reach
How many people are affected by your code?
AmericanIdol.com
Yahoo.com
Twitter.com
LinkedIn.com
Facebook.com
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
Visitors (in Millions)
Lessons learned?
• Engage your community
• If you don’t have a community, create one
• Don’t be afraid to launch an initiative
• YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
THANK YOU!
Twitter: @joedevon, @gbla11ydayEmail: [email protected]://globalaccessibilityawarenessday.org/