Workshops for Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2026

North Rhine-Westphalia has its own statutory body that checks whether the websites of public bodies (including universities) are accessible: the Monitoring Body for Accessibility NRW. There are monitoring bodies in every EU country, with a total of 17 in Germany, which shows that accessibility is being promoted throughout Europe.

As part of this year's GAAD, the monitoring body would like to introduce itself to all interested parties and provide answers to the following questions:

• Who or what is the monitoring body of the state of NRW?
• What is its function(s) and on what legal basis does it perform them?
• How does it check websites for accessibility?
• Whose websites are checked?
• How are the test reports structured and what is the best way to deal with them as a responsible person?

Afterwards, participants will have the opportunity to talk directly to the monitoring body and raise individual concerns/questions with them.

Target group
University staff involved in the implementation of web accessibility and anyone interested in accessibility

Speakers
Ralf Niemietz and Marco Strauch(IT.NRW)

Material
will be made available online one day before the event begins

Participation
Simply log in (without pre-registration) to the following Zoom room.

The starting point of the lecture is an unspectacular ticket: The alternative text of a logo should become more meaningful. No error, no crash, no security gap - just a few words. However, this example makes it clear why semantics is not a detail, but a central component of system quality. The lecture uses this example as an introduction to show how implicit assumptions are constantly being made in complex digital systems: What is visually "obvious" to many only remains comprehensible to screen readers and other assistance technologies if meaning has been clearly modeled in the code. Everyday implementations - such as alt texts, links and buttons or the choice of semantic HTML elements - should make this clear: Accessibility is not an additional feature or a special case, but a quality lens. It makes blurriness visible, which can later become expensive in maintenance, further development and team communication.

Target group
Anyone interested in the topic

Have you ever wondered which technical aids can support you in your studies? As part of the Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), the Competence Center Digital Accessibility.nrw is once again presenting its database: Assistive Technologies NRW (AT.NRW) - a real must-have for anyone who wants to get through their studies with fewer obstacles.

In the one-hour session, we will show you which tools are available for which needs, how they can help you in your everyday university life and answer your questions. You will also find out which universities in NRW offer which tools. Come along and discover one or two tools that could possibly help you in your studies.

Social media posts are only accessible if certain aspects are taken into account. In this workshop, participants will learn how to make their social media profile(s) accessible to as many users as possible. The focus will be on the Instagram platform, but many of the practical tips discussed here can also be applied to other popular platforms.

Target group
Web editors, content creators, all interested parties (professional or private)

Speakers
Ina Marie Ernst and Sabrina Januzik
(Competence Center digital accessibility.nrw, TU Dortmund University)

Material
will be made available online one day before the event begins

Participation
Simply log in (without pre-registration) to the following Zoom room.

In this workshop, participants will gain an initial insight and practical tips on what to look out for when designing (university) websites in order to reduce barriers in terms of perceptibility, usability, comprehensibility and robustness for a wide range of user groups (e.g. handling page structures, images/graphics, colors/contrasts and links).

Target group
Web editors from the university context

How can artificial intelligence support the creation of alternative texts for images? In this presentation, a prototype approach will be presented that experiments with AI-supported image description, focusing in particular on the perspective of visually impaired and blind students. The prototype will be used to show how image content can be described automatically, where the opportunities of such support lie and where human review and editorial decisions remain important. The lecture invites you to understand the role of AI not as a ready-made solution, but as a tool for trying out, learning and further developing accessible digital teaching.

Target group
Teachers, education managers and anyone who wants to make university teaching more inclusive

Speaker
Axel Nattland, Center for Learning and Innovation (FernUniversität in Hagen)

Material
will be made available online one day before the event begins