Accessibility Events in February 2024 & fangirling about sign language in K-Pop
For the Love of making the world a bit more accessible.
Online Events
Data and persons with disabilities: an assessment and findings
Wednesday, February 7, 8 AM EST or 2 PM CET
Sara Rocha was the lead consultant on this project and will be presenting the findings. International Sign interpretation and live captions in English will be provided.
The International Disability Alliance, the Stakeholder Group of Persons with Disabilities, and CBM Global Disability Inclusion carried out a survey with organizations of persons with disabilities (OPD) and other stakeholders to assess the use and gaps of the Disability Data Advocacy Toolkit. The survey further explored data gaps and gathered OPD-led citizen-generated data.
Two reports emerged from this work:
(1) Disability Data Advocacy Toolkit: lessons learned
(2) a compilation of case studies of data generated by organizations of persons with disabilities.
Webinar [in German]: PAC 2024 - erste Schritte
Tuesday 13th February, 3 pm
Accessible PDFs seem to be something that still intimidates people. Is it because many of us still have to google how to convert a PDF back into a Word document? Me too sis, but it’s not that scary!
This 30 minute introduction session is a good start. I attended the last one and it was nice to get a walk through of how to check a PDF. The PAC tool is free and it’s only a 30 minute webinar, so what’s there to lose?
Webinar [in German]: Ask the expert - Praxistipps: Quality Checks in PAC 2024 verstehen und nutzen
Wednesday 14th February, 3 pm - 4 pm
What’s more romantic than understanding document accessibility? PAC hosts a free webinar for PDF accessibility once every month, but the catch: it’s in German.
Axe Con 2024
20-22 February
Axe Con is a virtual conference organized by De-que who you might know for their Axe Accessibility dev tool. If not, I’d highly recommend downloading the browser extension or forwarding it to a front-end dev or software tester you like, to make their life easier.
Take a glance at the agenda or scour the archives of Axe Con 2023.
hybrid Events
What's new in AT?
Wednesday 21, 13:30 - 18:30 GMT
Assistive Technologies are constantly evolving, offering increased capabilities at lower costs than ever before. This is an opportunity to learn firsthand from AT creators, AT specialists, and explore new ways to transform learning and working.
Zero Con 2024
21-23 February, in Vienna & live broadcast
The Zero Project Conference is an annual conference to share innovations and solutions that improve the daily lives of people with disabilities. The Zero Project works towards a world with zero barriers. I really like their slogan because it highlights what we should focus on: the barriers blocking us. And while deeming if something is “accessible” or not can be tricky depending on the situation, a “barrier” is easier to pinpoint and gives you a starting point to fix.
Yours truly will be at the Zero Conference this year, so say hi if you see me! In the meantime, you can watch back talks from last year on the Zero Project YouTube Channel.
"Good Design" at Kao Corporation: A11yTokyo Meetup
Tuesday 27 February, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm CET
Kao Corporation has had an internal creative department for nearly 100 years, where design development has been carried out in-house.
Over time, as they have identified societal trends and changes, their role has evolved, and since 2019, they have been required to develop designs in line with ESG.
They will introduce Kao's commitment to 'good design (monozukuri)’ with examples of universal design and environmentally friendly products, focusing on the perspectives, roles, and design processes of our current in-house designers.
The session will be in Japanese, but as always English captions will also be provided. But if you are preparing for the next JLPT as well, why not test your listening comprehension?
in-Person-only Events
Guest lecture: Craig Spence, International Paralympic Committee
Monday 5 February, 5 pm GMT at UCL in London
This guest lecture is part of the Global Disability Innovation Hub (GDI Hub) UCL based MSc in Disability, Design & Innovation. It is a unique opportunity to join a guest lecture from our Innovation for a Fairer World module.
If you are in London, why not sprinkle a bit of UCL sightseeing into your day? The GDI Hub is one of those organizers that excite me when I see them in my inbox. Occasionally, they host guest lectures that are open to the public. Some are even live-streamed, but this one unfortunately not. So if you’re going, please give me a run-down of it!
IAAP 2024 February Exam Session
And here is your reminder that the IAAP exam sessions are still open until February 14. But you have to be quick and apply by January 31st, 5 pm EDT!
After a brief intermission period, the next exam period will open on March 13.
Fangirling about sign language in K-Pop
With Valentine’s Day coming up, I want to leave you with the music video of Love Wins All by South Korean singer IU.
Set in a dystopia, where floating cubes hunt our protagonists, the singer and V (acting as the love interest and representing IU’s fans) use Sign Language to communicate. Fans are still theorizing in comment sections everywhere around the globe whether they are using sign language because the cubes react to sound or because IU’s character is Deaf.
Sign Language in K-Pop is not that new, as many groups have already incorporated signs into their choreographies before. The best-known example is probably Permission to Dance by BTS which features "Fun”, “Dance” and “Peace” in ISL as part of the chorus choreography.
But it’s not only because of the use of sign language that I decided to brave the cringe and include this music video here. As shown in the thumbnail: V’s character is blind in his right eye. And I love how that was incorporated into the story! It is shown that he became blind at some point in life, which is statistically speaking correct! Because most disabilities are acquired throughout life. It’s quite rare to be born with no vision at all. It also shows that partial blindness is a thing: You can be (canonically) completely blind in one eye and still read signs. Say it with me: Blindness is a spectrum!
Truth be told, this stylized version of a “blind eye” is more reminiscent of cataracts (which you can get at any age!) and blindness doesn’t have a certain look to it. But I will stop nit-picking here, or else this newsletter will turn into an essay. The bottom line is, I’m happy that this representation challenges the common misperception of being blind = not being able to see anything at all.