Accessibility Body of Knowledge
In 2011–2012, several people in the accessibility community called for the creation of an Accessibility Body of Knowledge inspired by the Usability Body of Knowledge and the Project Management Body of Knowledge, but the websites that were created to realise this idea seem to have disappeared. For example, the EU-funded eAccess+ network created the eAccess+ Hub, which contained content that was made available under the terms of a Creative Commons licence. In early 2018, the network's website has disappeared. A11y Buzz (on the domain a11ybuzz.com) has also disappeared.
- Groves, Karl: My Challenge to the Accessibility Community: We Need an Accessibility Body of Knowledge, Karl Groves's blog, 30.07.2011.
- Nourry, Olivier: How we could build a Body of Knowledge for Web Accessibility, Accessiblog.fr, 12.03.2012.
- Sloan, David: Building an Accessibility Body of Knowledge, The '58 sound, 15.04.2012.
- Groves, Karl: What do you want to know about accessibility?, Simply Accessible, 29.01.2013.
- Eggert, Eric: We have to stop FUD accessibility, yatil, 02.03.2013.
Exams and Certificates
- Sims, Glenda: Accessibility Pro Certified: To Be or Not To Be, 24 Accessibility, 13.12.2018.
- Certification: Prepare, IAAP (accessed on 25.07.2021).
- Prepare for CPACC, IAAP (accessed on 25.07.2021).
- Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) – Zertifizierte Fachkraft für Kernkompetenzen der Barrierefreiheit, IAAP DACH, January 2021 (accessed on 25.07.2021)..
- Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS) – Spezialist für Web-Barrierefreiheit, IAAP DACH, January 2021 (accessed on 25.07.2021)..
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Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS),
IAAP (accessed on 25.07.2021).
See also:- Prepare for WAS, IAAP (accessed on 25.07.2021).
- WAS Sample Exam Questions (accessed on 25.07.2021).
- Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA), IAAP.
- Accessible Document Specialist (ADS):
- Accessible Document Specialist Content Outline, IAAP (accessed on 25.07.2021).
- Prepare for ADS, IAAP (accessed on 25.07.2021).
- 100 Days of A11y: a blog by Amy Carney about the preparation for the CPACC and WAS certification exams.
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Certification IAAP - Preparatory courses,
Funka (accessed on 04.02.2024).
Preparation courses for CPACC, WAS and ADS (in English). -
IAAP Certification Preparation Courses,
Deque (accessed on 11.07.2022).
Preparation courses for CPACC, WAS and ADS (in English). -
Weiterbildungskurse des Weiterbildungszentrums,
Kompetenzzentrum Digitale Barrierefreiheit (Hochschule der Medien) (accessed on 11.07.2022).
Preparation courses for CPACC and WAS (in German). - Saucedo, Mely: CPACC Study Guide: Tips, Materials, and My Personal Experience, Mely Saucedo's blog, 24.09.2024, updated on 05.11.2024.
- Built Environment Taskforce, IAAP(accessed on 25.07.2021).
- Preparing for the IAAP Accessibility Certifications! 📚 CPACC and WAS Overview (The Handoff with Derek Mei on YouTube, 7 minutes, 03.02.2021).
- Kingman, Abby: IAAP Accessibility Certification, Last Call Media, 08.06.2018.
- web-a11y.slack.com is a Slack community with several channels that are relevant to exam preparation, for example #certification-prep, #certification-study-group, #was-2022-studying and #was-certification-study-group.
- CPACC and WAS Resources, Digital Accessibility at Princeton (no date; accessed on 06.12.2022).
- Sue, Laura: Prepping for the CPACC exam, Laura Sue Design, 27.08.2020.
- Mayers, Caitlyn: A discouraging CPACC exam experience, Stark blog, 15.04.2021.
- Peruski, Rose: Key Takeaways from CPACC Accessibility Certification, Perficient Blogs, 15.07.2022.
- CPACC prep recommendation?, Reddit r/accessibility, 2021.
- Steudter, Michael: Preparing for CPACC exam by IAAP, mic.st, 05.01.2023. Blog post about how Michael Steudter prepared for the CPACC exam.
- Blatz, Jen: Prepare for the CPACC (or any) Exam — Strategies for Learning Success, Jen Blatz on Medium, 16.08.2023 (13-minute read).
- Lehner, Alexander: Why I think that accessibility certifications are useful, Oida, is des org!, 14.09.2023.
- Passed the CPACC exam with 752, r/accessibility on Reddit, 15.12.2023.
- Has anyone failed to CPACC, r/accessibility on Reddit, 05.12.2023.
- de Oliveira, Domingos: Web Accessibility Specialist – meine Einschätzung zum WAS-Zertifikat der IAAP, Barrierefreiheit | Schulung, Begleitung und Tests, 13.04.2023.
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NV Access Certification System,
NV Access (no date; accessed on 06.12.2022).
Certification related to the open-source screen reader NVDA. -
Certification – Freedom Scientific,
Freedom Scientific (no date; accessed on 06.12.2022).
Certification related to JAWS and ZoomText.
One of the “special features” of the IAAP certificates is that they need to be renewed every three years.
- You need to collect “continuing accessibility education credits” or CAECs during the time period that certificate is valid.
Only IAAP decides what they accept as credits. The types of activities that may get accepted include the following:
classes, workshops, webinars and other educational events that you attend (you need to provide evidence of this),
presenting educational materials about accessibility outside your job function
(emphasis mine), publishing articles, books or other publications about accessibility, participating in formal mentoring programs in accessibility and speaking engagements at IAAP events or IAAP-approved events. - IAAP has a list of approved events but it is strongly biases towards events in the USA, where IAAP is based.
- If you have just taken a certification exam, activities between the date of the exam and the day on which you received the exam results don't count.
- After collecting sufficient CAECs, you need to submit an applicatio for certification renewal and pay for it. For non-IAAP members in the developed world, the price for renewal (since January 2024) is $200. This price for renewal (let alone the price for the initial exam) is higher than the price for the basic certification exams for LPIC (levels 1 and 2), which don't even expire …
Other Links
- Accessibility Interview Questions, Scott O'Hara (on GitHub).
- Byrne-Haber, Sheri: Accessibility Interview Questions, Sheri Byrne-Haber (on Medium), 10.02.2019.
- Accessibility Interview Questions, a11ytips, 08.08.2020.