Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2025
Join 86 people pledging 382 hours to improve accessibility in WordPress.
Thursday, May 15, 2025
Help improve accessibility for 43% of the web.
Join us in celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) by pledging your time to improve accessibility in WordPress. Whether you’re a developer, designer, content creator, or site owner, your skills can help make the internet more usable for millions of people with disabilities. Even one small fix—like adding alt text, fixing heading levels, or improving keyboard navigation—can make a big difference.
What is GAAD?
The purpose of GAAD is to get everyone talking, thinking, and learning about digital access and inclusion for the more than one billion people worldwide with disabilities/impairments.
GAAD is a nonprofit event. The 14th annual event is taking place on Thursday, May 15th. Learn more about GAAD.
Why WordPress
WordPress powers 43% of the web. Imagine the impact you can have if you dedicate a few hours to focusing on accessibility. Whether you work on a plugin or theme, contribute to WordPress core, or make your own website more accessible, you’re helping create a more inclusive internet for everyone.
Take the pledge. Give an afternoon. Change the web.
Ways to Help
- Report accessibility issues for a popular WordPress plugin or theme.
- Report accessibility issues in WordPress core.
- Test patches or submit a new patch for open accessibility tickets in core.
- Provide feedback or PRs for Gutenberg Accessibility issues.
- Make your own website more accessible.
- Solve accessibility issues in your WordPress product.
- Caption accessibility videos on WordPress.tv
- Run a webinar to train your team on accessibility.
Submit Your Pledge
Make a public pledge to work on accessibility in WordPress on May 15, 2025 by filling out the following form. Have questions? Read FAQs
Global Accessibility Awareness Day has passed and this form is no longer accepting entries.
See Who’s Pledged
The following people have pledged to contribute to accessibility in WordPress for Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2025.
Adam Wright
1 hour pledged:
Making my website more accessible by addressing any concerns
Adrienne Grace
2 hours pledged:
Open one-on-one Q&A session for employees; work on menu issues for a site I run
Bhairav Heisen
3 hours pledged:
Improving accessibility in WordPress plugins and educating my team.
Devanshi Joshi
8 hours pledged:
I want to contribute to accessibility issues in WooCommerce pluginEshaan Dabasiya
8 hours pledged:
I’ll be working on accessibility issues in Gutenberg
Himanshu Pathak
8 hours pledged:
Will be working on the issues that need accessibiliy attentionJessica Salazar
4 hours pledged:
Making sure my designs are accessible and that all images have alt tags on them.Jessica Yaacoub
5 hours pledged:
I will be educating my internal team on web accessibility through a training
June Liu
6 hours pledged:
Marketing WP Accessibility Day, Blog on Accessibility from the POV of Marketing
Mahima Dave
1 hour pledged:
Translating accessibility content for non-English WordPress users.Maria Maldonado
4 hours pledged:
Accessibility Testing non-commercial WordPress plugins
Melissa Paschuck
4 hours pledged:
Resolve accessibility issues for animal therapy non-profit website
Sakshee Chowta
1 hour pledged:
Translate all assigned content related to WordPress Accessibility Daysarthak nagoshe
8 hours pledged:
I'll be working on accessibility (A11y) issues in Gutenberg
Sukhendu Guria
8 hours pledged:
Fixing accessibility issues in Gutenberg
William Patton
8 hours pledged:
Addressing Theme or Plugin Accessibility issues
Event FAQ
No! You don’t need to be an expert or a developer. Anyone can contribute—whether by reporting issues, testing with a screen reader, or making simple improvements to their own site. Every effort helps move the web toward greater accessibility.
Here are some resources if you want to learn how to accessibility test:
- Manual Accessibility Testing: How You Can Check Website Accessibility
- How to Test Your Website for Accessibility Problems Webinar
Even making simple content or design fixes on your website can make a big difference. Many of the most common accessibility issues on websites can be easily fixed in the editor without requiring edits to code.
If you have questions during the day, post them in the WordPress Accessibility Facebook group or the accessibility channel in Make WordPress Slack. Members from our team and the community will be available throughout the day to answer questions and point you in the right direction.
That’s perfect. Even one hour spent fixing a heading structure, testing a form, or reporting an issue can make a difference. This day is about collective action—every contribution adds up.
If you’re a developer who wants to volunteer time fixing accessibility bugs, please check these links for open accessibility tickets in WordPress Core and Gutenberg:
- Core Accessibility Tickets
- Gutenberg Accessibility Issues
- Issues with
accessibilityfocus - Needs Accessibility Feedback label, representing UX changes seeking feedback on accessibility.
- Issues with
If you want to contribute to accessibility in a popular plugin or theme, look on GitHub to see if they have an open repo, then check for issues tagged with ‘accessibility’ or ‘a11y’. If they don’t have a public repo, try opening a support thread on WordPress.org and asking them how you can contribute.
You can submit issues on GitHub for plugins and Gutenberg, or on WordPress Trac for Core. Report accessibility issues in WordPress core here.
Many plugins have templates for reporting issues that make it easy to get started. Learn how to create a GitHub issue. You will need to create a free GitHub or WordPress.org account to report issues or create Trac tickets.
If you have questions during the day, post them in the WordPress Accessibility Facebook group or the accessibility channel in Make WordPress Slack. Members from our team and the community will be available throughout the day to answer questions or collaborate on volunteer efforts.
If you want to reach out to an individual participant, click the link on their tile (if they have provided one) or try looking for them in community Slack or Facebook groups.
We challenge WordPress plugin and theme companies, agencies, and hosting providers to go all in: have your entire team dedicate May 15th to accessibility.
Imagine the impact if your developers fix accessibility issues, your designers audit interfaces, your support staff document common barriers, and your leadership commits to more inclusive products. This is your chance to lead by example—set aside your usual work for one day and focus on building a better, more accessible web for everyone.
Rally your team, make the pledge, and show the community what’s possible when accessibility is a priority.
That’s totally okay! Making your own website, plugin, or theme more accessible is a valuable contribution. Every improvement, no matter how small or where it happens, helps make the web a more inclusive place.
Your efforts matter, and they’re absolutely welcome as part of this pledge, even if they are on your own for-profit products or website. What matters is that you choose to focus on accessibility rather than other open bugs, enhancements, or content.
Nope! We take people at their word—there’s no formal reporting or tracking. This is about collective goodwill and shared commitment, not proof of contribution.
That said, we’d love to hear what you worked on! If you’re comfortable, share your progress or reflections at the end of the day on May 15th to inspire others and celebrate the impact we’ve made together. Optionally tag us @EqualizeDigital on social or reply to the signup confirmation email to let us know what you did. We’ll share a round-up of posts and a summary of the contributions in our newsletter the following week.
This is a community-led initiative in celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day. It is not an official WordPress event.
