20/05/2026
Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) an annual international event held on the third Thursday of May (May 21, 2026) dedicated to raising awareness for digital access and inclusion for more than one billion people with disabilities. It will be a conversation with Dr. Vint Cerf titled "From Access to Agency: Rethinking Digital Inclusion for Persons with Disabilities in the Age of AI"
We will have human captioning and also International Sign Language interpretation for this event. We hope you will join us on May 21 at 1400 UTC (10am Eastern). We will send the stream text links later.
Please register for Zoom meeting at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/KFURWYPUR1y838puqmLxpA
ON ThursdayβOn Thursday May 21, 2026 at 14:00-15:00 UTC the Internet Governance Forum Dynamic Coalition of Disability and Accessibility (IGF-DCAD) and the Accessibility Special Interest Group (A11ySIG) will commemorate Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) 2026, via webinar conversation with Dr. Vint Cerf titled βFrom Access to Agency: Rethinking Digital Inclusion for Persons with Disabilities in the Age of AI β
Over the past decade, global policy discourse has increasingly focused on expanding βinternet accessβ as a cornerstone of digital inclusion. Yet for persons with disabilities, connectivity alone does not translate into meaningful participation. A user may be connected, possess a device, and have basic digital skillsβand still remain excluded due to inaccessible design, incompatible platforms, or poorly implemented technologies. This gap calls for a conceptual shift: from access to agency.
At the same time, the rapid integration of artificial intelligence into digital ecosystems is reshaping how users interact with technology. AI-powered toolsβsuch as automated captioning, voice interfaces, and assistive agentsβhold transformative potential. However, they also introduce new risks, including bias, unreliable outputs, and inaccessible design layers that may deepen exclusion if left unaddressed.
Against this backdrop, accessibility must be reframed not as a technical afterthought, but as a governance, rights, and development issueβcentral to debates on AI, digital public infrastructure, and inclusive innovation. Registration is https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/KFURWYPUR1y838puqmLxpA and The RTT is https://www.streamtext.net/player?event=cfi-dcad
GUEST
Dr. Vint Cerf β Chief Internet Evangelist, Google
HOSTS
Dr. Muhammad Shabbir β Co-cordinator, IGF-DCAD
Judith Hellerstein β Co-cordinator, IGF-DCAD