Why GAAD Foundation?
In 2012, Joe Devon and Jennison Asuncion teamed up and launched Global Accessibility Awareness Day. Read the blog post that started it all. With 2021 marking GAAD’s tenth anniversary, it only made sense that a foundation, to harness the energy of GAAD, take shape.
Mission
The foundation’s mission is simple: to disrupt the culture of technology and digital product development to include accessibility as a core requirement.
Vision
Accessibility is built into the product development lifecycle for technology and digital products.
Meet the GAAD Foundation Leadership
Joe Devon Co-Founder
Joe is a serial entrepreneur who has been fostering the growth of the Los Angeles tech ecosystem since 2008. His experience includes co-founding at Diamond, an inclusive digital agency and co-founder of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). In 2019, Joe and the Diamond team launched their first State of Accessibility Report along side “Take the #GAADPledge” a commitment made by organizations and developers to make accessibility a core value of their project. When Joe is not solving technology challenges for major organizations, you can find him on stage influencing every developer and corporation to build their digital products with inclusive design in mind.
Jennison AsuncionCo-Founder
From Canada to the US, Jennison Asuncion has had a long career in Digital Accessibility. He spent seven years at the Royal Bank of Canada working with their internal teams and vendors to ensure they meet the bank’s IT accessibility standards. At LinkedIn, he manages a team of software engineers who focus on enabling the global workforce of professionals with disabilities to be more productive and successful. He founded the Bay Area Accessibility and Inclusive Design meetup, co-founded Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), and has an impressive array of awards, from being decorated by Queen Elizabeth II with the Diamond Jubilee Medal, to the 2018 Stephen Garff Marriott Award.