global accessibility awareness day presentation @ facebook

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: joe.devon@dws.lahttp://globalaccessibilityawarenessday.org/