Celebrating our people certified in accessibility

20 May 2021|Learning

The digital space should be accessible for all, regardless of their abilities or disabilities. Not everyone uses computers and mobile devices the same way: Some use a mouse, some use only a keyboard. Some navigate with voice commands, and some use a screen reader.

Due to users’ diverse need, we have a dedicated accessibility competence at Futurice. The group aims to raise awareness of accessibility inside and outside Futurice by providing opportunities to learn about accessibility. Good examples of these are internal training, events and knowledge sharing in an internal Slack channel. Also, last year we hosted an external event on Global Accessibility Awareness Day.

A little over a year ago, we added accessibility certificates to our certification program. So far, six people have gotten a certification, and many more are studying for the exams. In fact, the exact numbers are six people and 10 certificates in total.

We wanted to highlight and congratulate these people in the spirit of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, so here we are. But before celebrating, let's talk a bit about the certification program at Futurice in general and the accessibility certificates.

The certification program at Futurice

We have the Ultimate Learning Platform, an approach to help people learn and grow. One part of the platform is the certification program. Its goal is to help our specialists get the training they want in accessibility, cloud technologies, and other relevant fields.

If you're interested in learning about the other certificates in our certification program, Kalki Rose wrote about getting certified with AWS.

Accessibility Certifications

There are two accessibility certification exams employees can take in our certification program. Both of these are provided by the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP). There is also a third one highlighting people who have successfully passed the two exams. Let's look a bit deeper into these credentials.

Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC)

CPACC is a fundamental certification, covering topics such as disabilities in general, accessibility and universal design, accessibility-related standards and laws, and management strategies. It gives a good overview of accessibility, so anyone working with accessibility could take the exam - managers, salespeople, designers, developers.

Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS)

WAS is a more technical certification. It covers many topics, from creating accessible web solutions to remediating accessibility issues in web solutions. More detailed topics are, for example, guidelines and techniques such as WCAG 2.1, WAI-ARIA, and ATAG, accessibility quality assurance, and programming practices to create accessible solutions.

Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA)

CPWA is a designation earned by an individual who has both CPACC and WAS credentials. As IAAP writes on their webpage: "IAAP has chosen to award those individuals with a higher level credential as evidence of the significant achievement of passing both exams."