Inclusion & Accessibility Events in June 2026

A11y News brings you a curated look at accessibility and disability‑inclusion events in June 2026.

If you know of other events in the online or offline accessibility and disability inclusion space, please email them to a11ynews@substack.com or submit via form to be included.

Online Events

AccessibleEU Germany: Accessible public spaces – accessible and tangible for all

Every Wednesday in June 02:00-03:00 PM (CEST)

How can we design public spaces and environments so that they are equally discoverable, accessible, and pleasant to use for everyone? Older adults and people with disabilities are, of course, an integral part of our public life—they move about in cities, communities and facilities, just like everyone else. At the same time, there are tourists and people from other countries and regions who must find their way in an environment that is unfamiliar to them.

Closing the Accessibility Resolution Gap: How to Clear and Prevent the Backlog

Thursday, 4th of June, 1:00 PM (ET)

Accessibility shouldn’t be a fire drill. But when teams only fix issues after experiences are built, backlogs grow and last-minute rework derails launches. We call this problem the “resolution gap”—and thankfully, it’s reversable.

Funka Foundation: ACT rules – update on automatic and manual testing

Friday, 5th of June, 1:30 PM (CEST)

In this webinar, we take a look at what is new in the Accessibility Conformance Testing (ACT) rules and discuss their limitations. Harmonising test procedures are important but need to align with legal requirements.

Speakers:

• Malin Hammarberg, Accessibility Specialist and Senior UX Designer

• Susanna Laurin, Managing Director and Chair, Funka Foundation

Just Transition in Action: Advancing Social Inclusion and Sustainability Reporting with a focus on persons with disabilities

Tuesday, 9th of June, 09:30 AM (CEST)

The corporate sustainability agenda is at a crucial turning point, driven by strong momentum from investors and regulators, as well as international agreements on key issues such as biodiversity and human rights. While the need for climate action is evident, leading companies now understand that achieving a green transition must also involve ensuring a just and equitable transition that leaves no one behind.

Disabled Leaders Network: Getting into Public Appointments

Thursday, 11th of June, 12:00 PM (GMT)

The Disabled Leaders Network is partnering with the UK Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) to bring you this free webinar on Public Appointments (board member roles within public bodies). We will learn what Public Appointments are and the types of roles available; DCMS has around 400 Public Appointment roles across 42 UK Public Bodies including Historic England, the Charity Commission, the National Gallery, UK Sport, and the National Lottery Community Fund.

Join us to learn about the roles available and how you can get involved. We will particularly learn about applying for these roles with a disability and hear from a current public appointee offering their experience and insight. There will also be a Q&A giving you the chance to ask questions directly.

Live captioning and British Sign Language Interpretation will be provided whilst you can let us know of any other access requirements via the registration form or by emailing disabledleadersnetwork@ucl.ac.uk.

DHS Section 508 Trusted Tester Study Group

The series builds on our previous Accessibility Webinar Series. If you are new to accessibility auditing, review the recordings in advance or in between sessions, as we won’t go into details that have already been covered before.

Session 10: Synchronized Media
Friday, 12th of June, 4:00-5:30 PM (CEST)

Session 10 will exclusively talk about topic 17: Synchronized Media. This topic encompasses more Test IDs than most other topics in the programme, so it gets its own session. We will go in-depth into how to test for these topics, which WCAG 2.2 success criteria the test IDs are based on, and (interactive) examples for passing, failing and not applicable content.

Session 11: Resize Text, Multiple Ways, Parsing
Friday, 26th of June, 4:00-5:00 PM (CEST)

Session 11 covers 3 different, and way smaller topics, starting with topic 18: Resize Text, 19: Mulitpe Ways, and 20: Parsing. Each topic has only 1 test ID, so this session will likely finish in less than one hour.

Axess Lab: AI and Accessibility – What have we learned so far?

Friday, 12th of June 2026, 12:30-13:00 (CEST)

Join our upcoming webinar to explore the rapidly evolving intersection of AI and accessibility, from its use as an assistive technology to supporting plain language. We will share our latest findings to help you navigate the real benefits, hidden risks, and common pitfalls of relying on AI for digital inclusion.

AccessibleEU Belgium: Webinar on Diversity & Inclusion for Tourism SMEs across Europe

Tuesday, 23rd of June, 12:30 - 01:45 PM (CEST)

Within the framework of the INSPIRES project, and in collaboration with AccessibleEU and ENAT, we are pleased to invite you to the Tourism Lab on Diversity & Inclusion. This webinar aims to strengthen the capacity of tourism businesses across Europe by integrating inclusive and accessible practices, in line with the Transition Pathway for Tourism. It brings together practical insights, tools and exchange to help you move forward.

deque: What’s new in Axe DevTools

Tuesday, June 23, 15:30 (GMT), 8:30 am (PDT), 11:30 am (EDT)

Developers need to move faster than ever: writing code with AI, shipping features more frequently, and maintaining high-quality standards. Accessibility can't be left behind.

Hassell Inclusion: Six blockers that undermine your accessibility programme, and how ISO 30071‑1 can clear them

Thursday, 25th June 4:00 PM (BST)

Many organisations face the same recurring obstacles that stall accessibility progress, from fragmented leadership buy‑in to capability gaps and unclear processes. In this webinar, we’ll show how the ISO 30071‑1-1 Standard gives you a practical, structured way to diagnose issues, prioritise action and embed accessibility effectively across your organisation. You’ll learn how ISO 30071‑1 takes a complementary angle to WCAG to help you shift from reactive fixes to a confident, measurable, organisation‑wide approach.

Axe-Con Mini: The EAA anniversary

Tuesday, 30th of June, 9:00—10:30 am (EDT), 15:00—16:30 (CEST)

The EAA is gaining momentum. One year in, European monitoring bodies are scaling their audits and following up on consumer complaints, working groups are aligning, and legal proceedings are well underway.

COSP19 Side Events

The nineteenth session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (COSP19) will take place at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 9 to 11 June 2026. This year, the session comes at a significant moment as the global community marks the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

Shaping the Future of Disability Inclusion: From CRPD at 20 to the Global Disability Summit 2028

Tuesday, 9th of June, 15:00 - 16:15 (EST)

This side event will bring together governments, organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs), UN agencies and partners to explore emerging priorities for the Global Disability Summit.

From Youth Representation to Meaningful Participation in Political and Public Life

Wednesday, 10th of June, 8:30-9:45 (EST)

Twenty years after the CRPD, youth with disabilities are more visible in public life, but remain underrepresented where decisions are made. This side event will explore how to move beyond participation towards genuine leadership, representation, and influence, ensuring young persons with disabilities help shape the policies and institutions that affect their lives.

The event will have International Sign Interpretation, CART and language interpretation in French and Spanish.

ILO Global Business and Disability Network

Thursday, 11th of June, 10:00- 11:15 AM EST / 4:00- 5:15 PM CEST

At Twenty years of CRPD: Leadership by business and allies on Article 27 ‘work and employment’ - the ILO Global Business and Disability Network side event at the 19th Conference of States Parties (COSP19) to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) - you will hear the latest regarding practices and initiatives by businesses and their allies on the promotion of employment of persons with disabilities.

From Commitments to Implementation: Aligning G20 Priorities with the CRPD and SDGs through Global Disability 20 (D‑20) Engagement

Thursday, 11th of June, 4:45 PM (EST)

This dialogue will explore how disability-led leadership can help translate commitments under the CRPD and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into measurable action through economic participation, inclusive innovation, disaster resilience, accessibility, employment, and international cooperation.

The session will highlight lessons from Brazil’s 2024 D-20, South Africa’s 2025 D-20, and priorities for the United States’ 2026 host year as disability leaders work together to build a lasting global platform for collaboration and influence.

Hybrid Events

A11yNYC: Scaling Accessibility with Design Systems

Tuesday, 2nd of June, 7:30 - 9:00 PM (EDT)
72 Spring St · New York, NY

Twenty million New Yorkers. Forty-five agencies. Tens of thousands of web pages, forms, and applications. What does it take to scale accessibility across an entire state?

This event will be online on YouTube and in-person (New York City). The speaker and live stream starts at 7:30 pm ET. In-person attendees may arrive as early as 7 pm ET.

AccessibleEU European Event: Advancing Accessibility in Transport

Tuesday, 9th of June, 09:30 AM –04:30 PM (IST)
Aviva Stadium, Dublin

As mobility systems evolve through digitalisation, multimodal integration and new mobility services, accessibility has become a fundamental requirement for equitable, inclusive and sustainable mobility aligned with EU legislation and policy framework

AccessibleEU European Event: Accessibility’s Achievements and Challenges in Contemporary Architecture and Urban Planning

Monday, 29th of June, 02:00 - 04:00 PM (CEST )
Barcelona International Convention Centre (CCIB)

This event aims to foster collaboration among architects, public authorities, universities, experts and organisations of persons with disabilities, creating a milestone within the UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona programme.

In-Person Events

DevFest Vicenza: How blind people navigate the world—on and offline

Saturday, 6th of June, all day
VIEST Hotel, Vicenza

The WCAG are our non-tactile guiding lines for web accessibility, but many of us working in web accessibility have never experienced the real world through low-vision eyes. This talk is a collaboration between UX for hardware and front-end development to give you the best of both worlds: on and offline.

Together we will explore how a white cane can take you from point A to B and how a screen reader works through your main user flow. At the core of this talk will be the fact that blindness is a spectrum and therefore, no one-size-fits-all solution exists. However, if you understand how blind users interact with your website, it's going to be easier to make decisions on what will be useful to users in a particular flow, design in a usable way, and choose the right tags in your code.

Note for participants: if you'd like to test the screen reader yourself, please bring your laptop (with NVDA installed if you are not using a Mac) and a pair of headphones.

AccessibleEU Italy - Inclusive and Smart Tourism Destinations: Strategies for Innovation

Thursday, 18th of June, 09:30 AM - 07:00 PM
Aquarium of Genoa

Through panel discussions, workshops, and networking sessions, participants will explore how accessibility can enhance the quality and competitiveness of tourism services while ensuring equal opportunities for everyone. The event will also highlight successful case studies and encourage collaboration between public and private sectors to foster long-term, sustainable change.

BarCamp Digitale Barrierefreiheit in Tübingen

Friday, 26th of June 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Westspitze Tübingen

Nach dem erfolgreichen Barcamp Digitale Barrierefreiheit 2025 am Bodensee geht es in die nächste Runde: Dieses Jahr kommen wir in Tübingen zusammen! Das Barcamp bringt Menschen mit Behinderung, Unternehmen, Selbständige und Lösungsanbieter aus Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz an einen Tisch. Gemeinsam lernen wir voneinander, teilen Praxiswissen und gestalten die süddeutsche Region barrierefrei – offen, partizipativ und auf Augenhöhe.

Nominate for the Zero Project Awards 2027

Every year, the Zero Project Network reaches out to organizations worldwide, inviting them to nominate their innovative solutions for the Zero Project Awards regardless of sector, organization size, or country.

The shared mission is to advance the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The Call for Nominations 2027 (#ZeroCall27) focuses on the topics of Independent Living, Political Participation, and Assistive Technology.

#ZeroCall27 is now open. Submit your nominations by June 21, 2026 [23:59 CEST] at the latest.

IAAP DACH Knowledge Badge for accessible teaching practices

multiple exam dates in June/July 2026

IAAP DACH is offering the Knowledge Badge exam “Barrierefrei lehren” (KB-BFL) once again. The accompanying study course is now available in both German and English:

Free Public Courses

I am happy to report that I will be hosting 3 exam dates in Vienna. Last year, I took the exam in Linz and was shocked that the one and only option to take this (at the time also free) exam in Austria, had such low turnout. After passing, I wanted to offer it in Vienna as well, hoping for better turnout here.

Regardless of the exam, the study course is a great way to deepen your knowledge on accessibility. It covers a bit of legal, a bit of disability variety, and a lot of document tooling which is often skimmed over.

I highly recommend you check it out!