The third Thursday of May each year is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). On this GAAD 2025, Sony Corporate Blog about Sony's initiatives for inclusive design was posted with a short message from Hiroki Totoki, President and CEO of Sony Group Corporation, and Sony Group companies around the world conducted various initiatives to raise awareness of accessibility.
In celebrating GAAD, Sony Music Group invited four musicians with disabilities to hold a concert for the company. The concert featured live performances with sign language interpretation so that people with hearing disabilities could also enjoy it. Employees who participated enjoyed the powerful singing and performances of the musicians with disabilities, and the event was an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of accessibility and inclusion through music.
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) has sponsored the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge for eight years. The film challenge gives aspiring filmmakers the opportunity to showcase their talents through writing, directing, editing and acting in short films. The Awards are presented to the most outstanding works. The awards ceremony took place at the Sony Pictures studio lot in Culver City in May.
To view recording clink here.
Sony North America has continued its annual tradition of hosting GAAD events both virtually and in person since 2016.
As part of GAAD 2025, professional keynote speaker Dustin Gianneli with hard-of-hearing joined Sony virtually to give a lecture. Diagnosed with profound hearing loss at age five, Dustin is an advocate for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. At this event, he shared his experiences of overcoming various challenges he faced in his daily life and shared how organizations can champion accessibility and inclusion in the workplace.
Sony North America led the event with participation from SPE and Sony Corporation of America for a collaborative Sony Group partnership.
