UK Association for Accessible formats

Making every document an accessible document

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Our chair Roger Firman takes a look back over a busy year for the Association, while also putting some markers down for the next 12 months

Good morning, Roger, hope you are well, and thanks for taking the time to talk to us on the UKAAF blog. We had a conversation about two months after you’d …

I recently sat down with UKAAF board member Jeff Mills, who has a particular focus for us on HTML, Office Documents and PDFs for us. With over 25 years’ experience in the document industry and amazing track record in making a difference in accessible documents, Jeff’s CV includes numerous landmarks like being involved in the first ever project to create accessible PDF statements for the Web.  Many UKAAF members will be familiar with the important commercial work he’s doing with his company Grackledocs, the only Google Add-Ons that check and remediate output from Google Workspace to make it more accessible.  All that means it’s always worth talking to him, but we had been intrigued by a comment in an email about what sort of a future he wants UKAAF to have.

Read more Is there a future where there is no need for UKAAF to exist?

Sometimes, when it comes to the long fight to improve visual accessibility that UKAAF members and supporters are engaged in, a little bit of grass roots brilliance can go a long way to keep you optimistic. And the wonderful news I spotted on the BBC’s Newsround channel for younger viewers surely fits that description to …

Expertly and courteously chaired by our still relatively new UKAAF chair Roger Firman, the 13th annual UKAAF AGM has just successfully concluded.

In cyberspace again for the second time (thanks to a certain novel coronavirus), the event was ‘standing room only’ for board members and the many enthusiastic (and patient!) attendees via Zoom (32 all told) …

What links the 12-inch vinyl record, the computer keyboard, and even the text recognition software that laid the foundation for the modern database?

The answer: they were all initially brought to market for blind consumers. So it would seem everyone benefits if more people with disabilities are involved with making tools and systems—but it’s a message …

Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), when the world is invited to get everyone “talking, thinking and learning” about digital access and inclusion.

Once you know that GAAD is all about the more than 1 billion people who are living with some form of disability or impairment, you will see why. The idea of the …

With less than a week left to go, the clock is ticking down fast to a very important date for UKAAF and anyone who supports its mission: Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD).

Set for Thursday, May 20th, 2021, GAAD’s stated mission is to get everyone “talking, thinking and learning” about digital access and inclusion, and the …