In a world of rapidly advancing technology it’s crucial to ensure companies and organizations are doing their best to make digital developments accessible to everyone.

While browsing the internet, catching up on social media, or texting on mobile devices might seem like second nature to some, accessibility-related barriers prevent millions of people with disabilities from easily using basic forms of technology and, in some cases, even discourage them from going online.

In 2012, Global Accessibility Awareness Day was launched to help highlight the need for increased digital accessibility.

In recent years we’ve seen some amazing action taken — from the creation of virtual marches, which give those with physical disabilities a place to protest online, to more advanced social media tools, like Facebook’s face recognition and automatic alt-text tools, which help blind users and people with low vision better identify posts and people in photographs. But there’s still a lot of room for improvement when it comes to disability inclusion.

Approximately 15 percent of the world’s population have a disability, according to the World Health Organization, which means that more than one billion people could face daily challenges when using digital devices. Here’s everything you need to know about the yearly GAAD celebration.

What is Global Accessibility Awareness Day?

The Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is a day dedicated to celebrating existing digital accessibility efforts, and also fostering conversations on the importance of inclusion to inspire further action amongst designers, developers, and tech leaders.

GAAD, celebrated on May 16 this year, is held annually on the third Thursday of May. 2019 will mark the eighth year it’s being observed worldwide. 

What inspired this globally recognized day?

This may come as a surprise, but Global Accessibility Awareness Day was inspired by a single blog post written by Los Angeles-based web developer Joe Devon, back in 2011.

The post, titled “CHALLENGE: Accessibility know-how needs to go mainstream with developers. NOW,” was a bold call to action in which Devon brought attention to the lack of readily available information about online accessibility.

“Let’s work together and fix this oversight in our knowledge. As a community, we can work together to change the world.”

“Let’s work together and fix this oversight in our knowledge. As a community, we can work together to change the world,” Devon wrote before suggesting a yearly Global Accessibility Awareness Day. He hoped web developers could set aside this one day to work towards bridging the existing gaps in accessible technology and digital design. 

After digital accessibility professional and GAAD co-founder Jennison Asuncion stumbled upon the blog post on Twitter, he reportedly reached out to Devon and the two worked together to bring the day to life. In a 2014 video, Asuncion described the GAAD as “that single day to think about, to learn about, and to experience digital accessibility.”

What can I do to get involved?

If you’re looking to educate yourself and help raise awareness on digital accessibility there are a bunch of different ways to take part in the global conversation.

Host or attend a GAAD event

To start, consider holding or attending a GAAD event, either in-person or online on May 16. The Global Accessibility Awareness Day website lists dozens of events located all over the world in countries like the United States, India, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, South Africa, and more. You can also browse event pages from past years for ideas.

Go virtual

For people unable to attend in-person events due to physical disabilities, or those who are simply interested in learning about digital accessibility awareness digitally, you have a lot of options as well.

Here are a few ways to participate online:

• Informative webinars — From Blackboard’s “Follow-the-Sun” webinar series — which will focus on accessibility in education — to Finalsite’s webinar on “How To Promote Accessibility At Your Organization,” there’s a diverse selection of webinars ready to enroll in on the GAAD site.

• Attend a virtual coffee meeting — The Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians (CAPAL) is hosting a virtual coffee meeting on May 16 with guest speaker Lisa Liskovoi, an inclusive designer and digital accessibility specialist at the Inclusive Design Research Institute, the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD).

• Tune in to BBC Access All Areas — In support of GAAD the British Broadcasting Company’s Digital Accessibility teams are hosting a live stream on May 16 to talk innovations in assistive technology and more. Tune in here.

• The #A11YJAM game jam — The accessibility game jam aims to break down barriers in gaming by asking “developers to adapt a game they made for a previous game jam with changes to make it more accessible.” You can learn more and take part in the #A11YJAM game jam until May 15.

• Download a GAAD Logo — The GAAD Logo is available for download in case you want to display it on your website or social media accounts to raise awareness.

Be sure to check out GAAD’s full list of virtual events.

Attend an Apple Accessibility Workshop

In 2017, Apple —  a dedicated supporter of GAAD over the years — released a series of powerful short films in honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day which showed some ways people with disabilities customize their devices.

This year, Apple stores will host accessibility workshops globally to inform people on the importance of assistive technologies and teach them how to use those already present in Mac computers, iPads, iPhones, and Apple Watches. The company will discuss topics such as “Accessibility Features for Vision Loss and Hard of Hearing,” “Using VoiceOver on iPhone and iPad and for Mac,” and “Learning and Literacy Features.”

For more information about GAAD events or to book a seat in one, check your local store page. You can also visit the GAAD website to learn about other companies and organizations hosting internal events.

Help raise awareness by experiencing accessibility first-hand

If you’re unable to attend any GAAD events, have no fear, you can still take action in your own time. The GAAD co-founders suggest everyone set aside an hour of the day to experience digital accessibility first-hand.

Through guidelines on the GAAD website, the co-founders offer simple ways to modify devices such as going without a mouse, using your keyboard to navigate, and using a screen reader such as NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) or VoiceOver to engage with websites.

And if you’re a website owner GAAD also offers the perfect opportunity to make some more inclusive changes to your site. Here are some steps to take:

• Enlarge font sizes to assist blind or low-vision users.

• Ensure your webpage has proper color contrast.

• Create a video and caption it.

• Write a blog post to raise digital accessibility awareness.

• Have your website professionally assessed by a digital accessibility expert.

A future focused on accessibility

While individuals, designers, programmers, and website owners around the world strive to create a more accessible digital world, major tech companies also plan on putting in the work.

In hopes of making tech and digital design more accessible, companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and more are working together as members of the Teach Access initiative — an organization dedicated educating, promoting leadership, building and sharing tools, and creating additional innovations related to accessibility.

So whether you’re attending an event or encouraging others to gain a better understanding of digital accessibility by experiencing it first-hand, there’s a number of ways you can promote inclusion on Global Accessibility Awareness Day and beyond.

May is National Masturbation Month, and we’re celebrating with Feeling Yourself, a series exploring the finer points of self-pleasure.

It’s 2019, and people are finally starting to understand that it isn’t just dudes who are allowed to be horny. 

While social media platforms lag behind on allowing sponsored posts for vibrators and other sextech, one sex toy company is getting around these barriers by advertising through something more organic: meme accounts. 

Male sexual enhancement has long been advertised openly. Older men toss footballs and describe how Viagra rejuvenated their love lives. Condom ads run in the same traditionally masculine tone as whiskey and beer spots. Sure, we’ve seen ads for menstrual products, where overly cheery women spike volleyballs on the beach and sprint across stretches of wildflowers as if their uteri weren’t betraying them at that very moment. But products focused on female sexual health — and on pleasure, specifically — remain shrouded in shame. Companies in the sextech space face difficulty securing funding for new products and often can’t advertise using traditional channels. 

As a result sex tech companies have increasingly relied on social media to promote their products. Aesthetically pleasing sex toys found a home on Instagram a while back. (Vox dove into the many companies whose minimalist earth-toned Instagram grids echo those of beauty and skincare brands.) But Unbound, a sexual wellness company founded in 2014, takes a different approach. 

Leaning in to chaotic horniness

The company’s Instagram grid is curated chaos. Unbound also posts ethereal portraits of female and non-binary fans with their toys, but the soul of its Instagram presence is in the memes about eating ass and canceling plans to play with yourself instead.  

“When it comes to subjects that make us feel vulnerable,” Unbound CEO Polly Rodriguez told Mashable during a phone call. “The best thing to make people more comfortable is to laugh at the truths we all know are real but maybe don’t talk about.”

Buying toys for the first time can be an intimidating experience, especially if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Traditionally, sex shops were crowded with overwhelmingly flesh-colored silicone molded into equally overwhelming phallic shapes. For decades, Rodriguez says, toys for women were designed by men, based on cis male genitals. When she was diagnosed with cancer and treatment forced her into menopause at the age of 21, a friend who was a nurse recommended buying a vibrator to get a hold of her sex drive again. Rodriguez says she, “questioned why they all had to look like penises.” 

SEE ALSO: How mutual masturbation can help close the orgasm gap

She added that the packaging on the toys depicted women “in lingerie with big boobs and the hair,” and said she didn’t see herself in them. Unbound products are more whimsical and otherworldly than conventionally sexy — one of its vibrators is literally shaped like an alien spaceship. Rodriguez says when it came to designing these toys, she wanted people to feel comfortable leaving it out on their nightstand. 

The fact that Unbound’s toys are rarely shaped like any sort of genital almost makes their Instagram page more approachable for first-time buyers who may be more timid about their desires. It also naturally paves the way for a more chaotically horny, relatable social media landscape. 

“That mentality of not giving a fuck relates to a lot of the audience,” Rodriguez said, explaining the company’s shitpost-y Instagram presence. “We want to follow meme accounts because they make us laugh.”

A shift in the spon con landscape

Although Unbound really started taking off in 2016, at the height of color-coordinated, well-planned grids, Instagram users are moving away from avocado toast and selfies against saturated mural walls. As the Atlantic noted in an article about the decline of the perfect Instagram grid, “Fast-rising young influencers such as Emma Chamberlain, Jazzy Anne, and Joanna Ceddia all reject the notion of a curated feed in favor of a messier and more unfiltered vibe.”

Unbound was ahead of the times. When Glossier’s millennial pink-themed grid was the gold standard for Instagram accounts, Rodriguez said she let her former intern and now social media manager Emily Malinowski take the wheel. 

“Emily was like we’re just gonna post some weird shit and see what happens,” Rodriguez explained. “That’s where Instagram’s trending — people want lowbrow in experience but highbrow in intellect.” 

But while Unbound’s messaging and aesthetic resonated with its audience, Instagram itself still has a long way to go when it comes to sex positivity. The platform doesn’t allow Unbound to use typical advertising methods like promoted posts, Rodriguez says, and frequently removes posts it claims are inappropriate. She calls it a “double edged sword.”

“On one hand Instagram rewards brands and accounts that really care about visual aesthetic,” Rodriguez explained. “At the same time, Instagram is constantly taking down accounts, banning accounts … And yet male sexual wellness brands are allowed to promote.”

Which is why Unbound uses the more unconventional advertising tactic of partnering with meme accounts. Many brands, of course, reach out to influencers to promote their products. But doing spon con through memes, like Unbound is doing, is brilliant. 

Linda Lin found Unbound through the meme account @ghosted1996, and was drawn in by the fact that she didn’t have to visit a “sleazy website” to buy sex toys.

“It made it seem like masturbation was normal to talk about,” she said through Instagram DMs. “Seeing memes and small influencers promote this material makes you feel good about being open about your sexuality.” 

Hyacinth Rios was surprised that when they first bought an Unbound toy and posted about it, a friend reached out to ask how they liked it. 

“I remember being surprised that someone who I considered to be like a normie or local (not that either is bad) would be open about sex toys,” they said through Instagram DMs. “Which made me feel like it was probably super widely accepted now.” 

Normalizing masturbation through memes

The fact that Unbound advertises through meme accounts is so smart because it not only normalizes sex toys in a humorous, approachable way, but because it presents them on the ground level. Sure, masturbation can be a sexy experience for personal awakening and empowerment, but it can also be something you do when you’re bored. 

The memes depict masturbation as any other kind of self care, like popping on a face mask or blasting your favorite album. They aren’t necessarily presented as wholesome — but the fact that so many of the memes are about spending a night smoking weed and flicking the bean out of boredom or distress is what makes masturbating seem so normal. 

By establishing a presence through Instagram memes, Unbound gets around Instagram’s draconian rules for images surrounding female pleasure and also finds its way right into the lap of young people who are over cis men getting to have all the fun. 

“Meme accounts earn the respect of their audience because to be funny is difficult,” Rodriguez concluded. 

She notes that not everyone can nail down the art of meme making — if you get it, you get it, and if you don’t, you don’t. We’ve seen brands attempt to get in touch with the youth and fail miserably. But by going straight to the meme makers, Unbound lessens the risk of making an embarrassing gaff. 

Masturbating isn’t a big deal. Just ask the meme accounts of Instagram.

Facebook wants you to know that it’s feeling generous. 

In a Monday blog post, the social media company announced that it will raise hourly wages for some of its contract employees by next year. The move follows criticism that Facebook underpays content moderators forced to constantly slog through the worst digital detritus that humanity has to offer. 

The exact amount of the raise depends on where the employees in question live, and what type of work they do. For starters, this change only applies to contract workers in the U.S., and a chef in Seattle will not see as large of a raise as one in San Francisco. 

“The work we do to connect people around the world would not be possible without the talented and dedicated people who do contract work at Facebook,” reads the blog post. “They are employed by outside vendor partners to work either part-time or full-time and provide important services across content review, security, culinary, transportation and other teams.”

Content moderators, in particular, will see their base wage raised the highest. Facebook says that those working for “vendor partners” in the Bay Area, New York City, and D.C., will eventually earn $22 per hour. Those in Seattle will earn $20, and workers in other U.S. metro areas will earn $18. 

This is up from a base wage of $15 an hour for those who do a “do a substantial amount of work with [Facebook].”

“Content review at our size can be challenging and we know we have more work to do,” continues the blog post. “We’re committed to supporting our content reviewers in a way that puts their well-being first and we will continue to share steps forward on this important topic.”

The company also announced a series of changes designed to mitigate the soul-crushing work that is moderating Facebook. Specifically, expanded on-site counseling, “resiliency training,” and the ability to temporarily blur graphic images are all forthcoming. 

If you do contract work for the company in one of the aforementioned fields that isn’t content moderation, the promised future wages are a little different: $20 per hour in San Francisco, New York City, and D.C., and $18 in Seattle — also up from $15 an hour. 

SEE ALSO: Facebook gets petulant after co-founder’s call to break up the company

The kitchen staff at Facebook’s Menlo Park office unionized in 2017. 

Importantly, many of Facebook’s content moderators live outside of the United States. A 2018 documentary, The Cleaners, highlighted one such group in the Philippines. A New York Times report from May of last year focused on a “deletion center” in Berlin that employs 1,200 content moderators for Facebook. In other words, while nice, this promised raise doesn’t touch many of those working to keep Facebook relatively sanitized. 

And sure, this increase in wages is no doubt meaningful to those who will receive it. However, according to MIT’s living wage calculator, $20 per hour still falls below a living wage for a single adult with no children living in San Francisco. For an adult with one child that number is $39.86.

But hey, Facebook cares. It promises. 

From the very first shot of its opening credits, Game of Thrones has visually and thematically stressed that the machinations of its characters and plot are all part of an actual game. 

Westeros and Essos are the board, the powerful are its players, and those who get in their way are the unfortunate pieces whose lives tally the game’s victories and defeats. 

It its eight seasons on TV, Thrones has shown how the maneuvers of the players have changed the board and the way the game is played. What began as a simple blood feud between the Lannisters and Starks evolved into a convoluted war involving Greyjoys, Tyrells, Martells, Targaryens, and more — but all of those movements led to the defining moment of “The Bells,” wherein Daenerys Targaryen burned King’s Landing to the ground in a blaze of dragonfire. 

The destruction of King’s Landing and the irrefutable proof that Daenerys’ only intentions for Westeros are fire and blood are both game changers for the show leading into its finale, and the position of major players like Sansa, Tyrion, Jon, and Daenerys in the show’s last episode are unlike any seen so far on Thrones. Here’s where everyone stands. 

Team Jon

Dany’s burn-’em-all attitude lost her the support of Jon Snow and the North, as seen when Jon tried to order his men to retreat from King’s Landing once he realized his queen wouldn’t accept the surrender of the bells. It’s possible he’ll be able to hightail it back to Winterfell (everyone on the show has a teleporter now, that’s just canon) and shore up the Northern forces for a stand against Daenerys, risking the mad queen’s rage but fighting once more against an elementally overpowered enemy. 

SEE ALSO: The case for Jon Snow to end up on the Iron Throne

Tyrion is undoubtedly anti-Dany as well, having betrayed her to free Jaime from her capture only to see his plans burn up in her wrath. He also betrayed Jon Snow, however, when he admitted that he should have told Daenerys that he knew about Jon’s secret Targaryen heritage. Considering Tyrion’s failures in picking the right side this season, he doesn’t really have a place to go — Daenerys will consider him a traitor while Sansa and Jon will fault him for staying loyal to Dany as long as he did. 

Speaking of Sansa, she’s killing it right now. She’s kicked back ruling the White Walker–free North, probably supervising some building projects and getting Brienne of Tarth drunk enough to admit Jaime Lannister ain’t shit. She has every right to say “I told you so” to Jon if he comes crawling back with news of Daenerys’ destruction, but it’s also in her best interest to take Dany out to protect the North and potentially maintain its independence. Sansa also has Bran with her, for whatever he’s worth these days.

Arya abandoned the North and was ready to risk it all for a shot at killing Cersei Lannister. Witnessing the destruction of King’s Landing changed her, and going by her furious look in Episode 5’s final scene she may have added Daenerys Targaryen to her list. Arya’s murder skills are unparallelled in Westeros, but wanting to kill Daenerys is not the same as being on the side of the North. She works better alone, without armies or massive battle plans, so if the whole game of thrones comes down to a blowout battle it’s not likely Arya will charge in on a horse and join the fray. She’s freaked out, angry, and extremely murderous; that’s a side unto itself. 

Team Daenerys?

One of Westeros’ forgotten powers is Yara Greyjoy, queen of the Iron Islands. She allied with Daenerys with the condition that Dany grant the Iron Islands independence; now that Jaime Lannister has wiped out her creepy uncle Euron, she has the strongest and largest navy in Westeros and no particular reason to fight against Daenerys. Mass murder is generally bad, but it’s also kind of what the Ironborn do, and going against her Targaryen ally would mess with Yara’s queendom. Drogon’s ship-burning powers are also a check against Yara’s naval strength, so it’s difficult to determine if she’ll even turn up to the final showdown.

Daenerys doesn’t have a problem with ruling by fear these days. 

With Yara (and to some extent, Tyrion) in the wind, Daenerys doesn’t have many solid allies. Varys mentioned in Episode 4 that “the new Prince of Dorne” supports her, but it’s unlikely that he’ll be important enough to appear in the finale. Missandei’s execution and a desire for revenge should keep Grey Worm and the Unsullied on her side, and the Dothraki don’t have anywhere else to go. The people of King’s Landing are sure to hate her even more than they hated Cersei, but Daenerys doesn’t have a problem with ruling by fear these days. 

Another possibly ally for Daenerys is Gendry. She removed his bastardy and raised him to the Lord of the Stormlands earlier in the season. Like Yara, Gendry owes his ascent to Daenerys, but unlike the Ironborn queen, he has little or no armies since Stannis and Renly split and wasted most of the Baratheon bannermen in the War of the Five Kings. Still, with the Iron Islands, Dorne, the Stormlands, and the Crownlands, she has secure control of at least four kingdoms and their rulers. 

The Resteros

Aside from the North, the remaining kingdoms are the Vale, the Reach, the Westerlands and the Riverlands. Robin Arryn is Lord of the Vale and no one has thought about him since Season 6. The Knights of the Vale came through for the North in the Battle of the Bastards, but that was Littlefinger’s doing and he’s dead as hell. 

The Reach has no ruling family since the Tyrells were wiped out, but Tyrion promised to give Highgarden to Bronn, who will undoubtedly come to collect now that Cersei is too deceased to give him any more money. If Tyrion leaves Daenerys, however, Bronn won’t be able to collect on anything. 

SEE ALSO: The history behind that special crossbow Cersei gave Bronn in ‘Game of Thrones’

The power vacuum in the Reach, which controls most of Westeros’ food, is a huge problem for whoever rules, but Sam Tarly’s right to Horn Hill as one of the Tyrells’ strongest former leal lords might put him in a position to deliver the kingdom. Of course, that could only happen if the fall of the Wall / defeat of the Night King officially caused the Night’s Watch to disband and release him from his vows. Since he’s starting a family with Gilly, Sam might consider his watch ended. 

As for the Riverlands, they technically belong to Edmure Tully, who at last count was imprisoned while the Lannisters and Freys took Riverrun. If Edmure is still alive, he’s probably too weak to do much of anything, especially since he doesn’t have control of his castle. Still, any army coming or going to King’s Landing has to cross the Riverlands to get to the North, so it’s a strategically important place to control. 

With only one more episode of Game of Thrones left, there isn’t time to wrap up all of these loose ends. Recent seasons have narrowed the scope of the show to two locations and a handful of characters, but the finale could still come through in a way that proves how much every previous move in the game mattered. George R.R. Martin’s book series was concerned with the interplay between its characters and the kingdoms almost to a fault, but the books and show have both set up the game board for a complex and explosive conclusion.