Lainey’s introduction
On April 17, 2025 I joined 60 people in Tokyo for their monthly digital accessibility MeetUp, A11y Tokyo. (A-eleven-Y is short for accessibility because there are 11 letters between the A and the Y.)
Meeting accessibility champions in Tokyo, sharing what’s happening in the United States, and learning more about accessibility in Japan was a highlight of my first trip to the country.
A month later, on May 15, over 1,000 accessibility advocates across Japan celebrated Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). It was streamed globally with English captions and I was able to tune in for some of it from the United States.
Both the MeetUp and eight and one half hours of GAAD programming were organized by a group of committed volunteers led by Makoto Ueki. Makoto is a Japanese accessibility consultant, community builder, and friend to so many of us across in the global accessibility community. (Inviting me to speak at the Meetup was just one of many many things he and his wife Junko did to welcome me to Japan and make the trip so special.)
In this guest article, Makoto shares how he has built accessibility awareness and action through both GAAD and the MeetUp. Please read [...]