The third Thursday of May each year is Global Accessibility Awareness Day. At this GAAD2023, Kenichiro Yoshida, Chairman and CEO of Sony Group Corporation delivered a message, and Sony Group companies around the world conducted various initiatives to raise awareness of accessibility.

• Message to GAAD from Kenichiro Yoshida, Chairman and CEO, Sony Group Corporation

A recent interview with Paul Amadeus Lane, a key accessibility consultant, shed more light on how the design of the Access controller has evolved with feedback from the accessibility community.

• Access Granted: An interview with Accessibility Consultant

Also, an accessibility lead at PlayStation Studios shared his thoughts on PlayStation's vision for breaking down barriers to play and building accessibility features into our offerings and why improving accessibility creates benefits for all players.

• Accessibility: Making Gaming Better for Everyone

Lastly, internal events and activities took place during GAAD week. SIE held "Empathy Accessibility Labs" across offices in San Diego, San Francisco and San Mateo.
Several demo booths were set up to emulate the experience of having various forms of disabilities, while showcasing our products and how they support users with disabilities. People were encouraged to share how disabilities affect them or someone they know.

Photo of Empathy Accessibility Labs

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a sponsor of the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge, which gives creators with disabilities the opportunity to showcase their talents in a variety of ways. A week prior to the Global Accessibility Awareness Day, SPE hosted the 10th anniversary awards ceremony at the Sony Pictures studio lot in Culver City, 115 submissions were received globally and the winners were honored in various categories such as Best film, Best Director and Best Actor.

• Recording of the event
• Sony Pictures GAAD LinkedIn Post
• Easterseals Southern California LinkedIn Page
• Easterseals Southern California External Website
• Easterseals Disability Film Challenge External Website

Award ceremony held at Sony Pictures studio 

Sony Music Group (SMG)'s Office of DE&I held a keynote with Harper Spero in recognition of GAAD. Harper is a storyteller and community builder for people living with invisible illnesses. She has lived her whole life with Hyper IgE Syndrome, a rare immunodeficiency that took a decade to get diagnosed. After keeping her illness, a secret for nearly 30 years and undergoing a life-altering surgery, she decided she could no longer remain silent. Employees were moved by Harper's vulnerability and thanked her for sharing her story. The session ended with a mini workshop to help SMG employees reflect on their own experiences with disability and accessibility and explore the power of storytelling.

Harper Spero, Guest speaker

• GAAD2022