Re: Seeking feedback on IAAP certification roadmap

I do remember GAWD, and I'm aware that they have disappeared from the
scene. Yes, it's always possible that this effort could end the same way.
No success is ever guaranteed.

I will point out, though, that IAAP has a rather lengthy list of founding
members: http://www.accessibilityassociation.org/content.asp?contentid=146

Most of these are from industry, as opposed to the two educational examples
that you gave. (And yes, I'm familiar with both DoIT and TRACE.) There's no
question that the base needs to extend beyond industry to include more
nonprofits and more educational institutions. One benefit of having the
support from industry is that industry has deeper pockets and can sustain a
group like IAAP longer than nonprofits or educational institutions alone
could. That gives the IAAP a longer runway and more of a cushion to try out
ideas and fine tune them. But yes, we do need to reach out to non-industry
partners and include them.

(By the way, I do not get paid anything at IAAP. I am a volunteer.)




Paul Bohman, PhD
Director of Training
Deque Systems, Inc
www.deque.com
703-225-0380, ext.121


On Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 1:59 PM, Userite <richard@userite.com> wrote:

>   Hi Paul,
>
> A few years back I joined the Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWD) who
> had a similar intention.
> I just checked and their website is no longer functioning. I fear that you
> have a really high mountain to climb!
>
> One very serious problem with certifying professional competence is the
> credibility of the certifying body, as GAWD discovered, people will not pay
> hard cash for a certificate that does not have real credibility (and thus
> real value in the job market). I could not find any reference in your road
> map to seeking any partnerships that would give you the required
> credibility. There are quite a few Universities that have good
> accessibility departments. One I know of is the University
> Wisconson/Madison’s Dept of IT  (https://www.doit.wisc.edu/accessibility/) and TRACE Centre (
> http://trace.wisc.edu/). There are certainly many others.
>
> It is much easier to certify that a website is accessible (i.e. does it
> comply with WCAG) than that a person has professional competence, so I
> strongly suggest that you urgently seek one or more partners who can bring
> credibility to your venture.
>
> Richard Warren
> http://www.userite.com
> P.S. It would also help your credibility if your site used valid HTML code
> (check by using http://validator.w3.org)
>
>
>
>  *From:* Paul Bohman <paul.bohman@deque.com>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, April 08, 2014 6:15 PM
> *To:* w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> *Subject:* Seeking feedback on IAAP certification roadmap
>
>  Cross posted request for feedback:
>
> The International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) needs
> your feedback on our roadmap for accessibility certification. Here is the
> roadmap as it stands now:
>
> http://www.accessibilityassociation.org/content.asp?contentid=163
>
> We are still in the early stages of designing the certification, so your
> feedback is most valuable now, before we commit to a certain path.
>
> Here are some questions to consider as you read the roadmap:
>
>    1. What do you think of the roadmap overall?
>    2. What would you do to improve our roadmap?
>    3. What do you think of the *levels* of certification outlined in the
>    roadmap?
>    4. Are there any broad *Knowledge Domains and Roles* that we have left
>    off that should be included?
>    5. Do you like our list of *Digital Accessibility* areas of
>    certification? Should we add to or subtract from this list? (For example,
>    one person commented that we should add gaming to the list.)
>    6. Do you like the idea of certifying for these areas separately, in a
>    modular approach as we have done? (See the section on *Referencing
>    IAAP Credentials* for an explanation of how this might work)
>    7. Do you like the 3 year period for certification? Would you make it
>    shorter (2 years) or longer (5 years)?
>    8. What kind of certification assessment would you create? Keep in
>    mind that it has to be a valid and meaningful test of the right kind of
>    competencies, it must be challenging enough that novices could not pass it
>    without first studying or gaining experience,  it must be scalable (not too
>    burdensome to administer or grade/score the assessment), and translatable
>    into other languages.
>    9. Once certification becomes available, do you think you would go
>    through the process to become certified? Why or why not?
>    10. What else should we consider as we move forward?
>
> To give feedback, you can reply directly to this email, or you can send an
> email to the certification committee: CC@accessibilityassociation.org
>
> Paul Bohman, PhD
> Chair, IAAP Certification Committee
> Director of Training
> Deque Systems, Inc
> www.deque.com
> 703-225-0380, ext.121
> Richard Warren
> Technical Manager
> Website Auditing Limited (Userite)
> http://www.userite.com
>