A11yCookies: Episode 2 - Accessibility Certifications for Professionals

Shilpi: Brilliant, so what do you love about the accessibility space? I've seen you here for so many years.

Christopher: Yeah yeah, you know it's a good question also. I love the passion of folks, I love the organic positive nature of the field and we have our ups and downs just like any other field but overall I think you know the majority of the folks are in it for the right reason. And you know my job every day is to get up and ensure that the work that I'm doing is impacting people with disabilities.

Shilpi: So with that if I was to ask you three reasons that we need an , we need certifications in accessibility?

Christopher: Yeah so this is so so important, it's kind of a core part of my being. It has become since I've been with IAAP, you know we really want to you know kind of Safeguard and defend the Integrity of the accessibility Services the products we want to make sure that when we develop them they're being developed right and the Services are given accurately by qualified folks and I think the quality is is so important. So that would be one area is is definitely making sure that we Safeguard and make sure that these products and services are much more accessible you know. The other area you know I kind of hit a little bit is ensuring that when organizations are hiring people they're hiring people that are qualified, that have the certifications or some sort of educational background. The third aspect which I think is is overlooked a lot Shilpi and that is the professional education aspect of this. I mean you think about that once you get a certification that's great but all certifications like many other professional associations you have to continue that education after 3 years. You have to have so many credits towards that certification to ensure that you're continuing to learn which is very important. From your the last question just said because the technology is changing you have to make sure you stay up on top of it as well as other things.

Shilpi: That's so true. I think over the last 20 years, I myself have had to learn and relearn new things again and again and it's an evergoing process and I find so many people who stagnate so I'm so happy that you know we're looking at continual education and just not getting people a certification.  Ok, with that let's talk some numbers. IAAP professionals five years back and today?

Christopher: Ok, I wrote some down here so just I'm going to read them out here. So in 2014 in 2014 IAAP started with 31 organizations. Just 31 in 2014 in 2019 we had over 2800 members and so those are organizational members and individual. So you can see that jump from 2014 to 2019 and then in 2020 and 2021 when the pandemic was going on, we saw in a tremendous increase up to I think 4,800 at that point. So that's another jump and so far in 2024 if I'm reading these numbers right which I'm checking here - yeah halfway through the year we are looking at over 7,000 members. So we're looking from 2,800 you know in 2019 to 2024 at you know over 7,000. That's pretty exciting.

Shilpi: That is exciting. So we've come as a profession, we've gone from being you know a small industry to becoming an actual professional industry per se and I think IAAP has a large hand to play within that.

Christopher: I think once we hit that 10,000 mark it really shifts within the organization at least everything I've read and learnt in the organization association really changes. Its makeup when you hit that 10,000. so the key is for IAAP is to make sure that we're hearing from our members and that we're hearing from our certification holders. you don't have to be both you can be one or the other or together and so as long as we are doing our job and listening and  pivoting based on what we're hearing we're going to continue to grow I believe .

Shilpi: So, 10,000 or 7,000 plus today but one piece of advice to newcomers in the accessibility field?

Christopher: You know what I love about associations which I wasn't as aware as until I came on to you know running IAAP in 2019 was the volunteer aspect of an association. I mean IAAP is run from the standpoint of a small staff and a large group of volunteers that are passionate about this field like yourself and so I would say get involved. Get involved, don't be shy, jump in it. This is a beautiful Community as I mentioned you know earlier it's organic in itself, it's positive, so jump in. You're not going to say the wrong thing, you not going to ask the wrong question get engaged and that would be my one piece of advice.

Shilpi: Which certification from IAAP would you recommend for a newcomer?

Christopher: Definitely the CPACC! You know I think the certified professional and accessibility core competency is the way to go. It's a long name I know but it's CPACC is what we call it and it's our first certification. It's the certification that we have the most people taking, it's the foundation certification. It's broad, it's not deep in the sense of the technical certifications that we have, so you learn about the why. Why you're in this field, you learn about disabilities,  you learn about accommodations, you learn about, you come in knowing this stuff but you study for it and you learn about you know  inclusive design a little bit and about accommodations and assistive Technology and you get a really nice sweep. So that when you walk out with that certification that you can go into any job and have a baseline that a lot of people don't have.

Shilpi: So you know you spoke about so many different skills right and it's a lot for people to think about but as we go forward we hearing of so many more emerging skills right so what is vital for an accessibility professional according to you today?

Christopher: Well I think right now it's so important that that people coming into the field understand the dynamic shift that we've seen around AI, machine learning. I think the way it's impacting our products and services from an innovation standpoint is so exciting but we have to be really cautious of how fast we move and how we communicate those types of products and services coming out with AI. So even though CPACC isn't a technical certification, individuals need to be aware of that and need to stop and say okay this product sounds great but is it really going to do what it says, it's going to do from a marketing standpoint. So I think AI and machine learning is the two areas right now that was pretty exciting. I mean you're seen it with images you know this with 247 and others. I mean it's exciting times.

Shilpi: Well you know we talked about a foundational certification which is CPACC, what differentiates the Web Accessibility Specialist or the WAS certified professional from others in the industry?

Christopher: It's a tough certification to be frank with you, you know it's the one certification that scratch my head at night but like you know this how do we get more people taking it and the problem,  yes it's a problem and also is a very positive thing is that we have a very strict qualification aspect to it is three to five years so what sets it apart is that you can you can you can know the knowledge but you have to be able to do it. So that 3 to five years is not just knowledge based it's skill based that means I am coding, I'm using assisted technology, I'm auditing , I'm very aware of not only the knowledge but also the skill set and I think that that's so important because the goal of the WAS and it's a more it's a slender certification. We don't expect it to grow massively but it is a certification that we want people to walk out of and say I can lead this accessibility team or I can go into a company and I can actually lead a team regarding accessibility and that is the idea of WAS itself and that's what sets us apart from many other professional certifications.

Shilpi: Well I can tell you some of the people on my team you know thought a lot before giving the WAS and they had a lot of apprehensions about how difficult it would be and I kept telling them you know you've got the experience, just go and do the exam and once they did it they came out saying you know the years of 3 years 5 years 7 years of experience really helped. And I think that's what what you're talking about and I think that's the differentiation so when people asked me about WAS and I always say it it shows your actual true ability or what you practiced and implemented in the real world.

Christopher: I do too. I mean that's you know that's the one thing I'd love to see so we're going to shift and do something more about digital accessibility more of a certificate not a professional certification like WAS. So we need different pathways. I need to be able, my team needs to be able to go to bed and know that we are funneling more people that learning about it. It's horrible to have someone come in and apply to be a candidate and not make it um because and they want to so that's on us and we've got some work to do on that.

Shilpi: Which brings me to how does IAAP build a community?

Christopher: Well you know I go back to the volunteers, it can be organic in a sense, I think a community is about people sharing and networking and having a place to be able to do that a safe place to be able to do that and I think that is vital is that it's respectful you don't you don't mix words you tell how you feel and what you're going through. Whether it's through your organization or whether it's through your own life working with accessibility and so I think it has to be a safe place I think you have to be able to really be able to have a network to be able to share it with and that's what we try to do so. Accessibility is global I think you and I both agree on that yeah but how do we really make this happen.

Shilpi: So often it's talked about that accessibility is only about the US markets right yeah how do you see that going forward ?

Christopher: Yeah you know I'm really proud of what we've done over the last few years. When I came on board and and the team was part of this you know we were kind of looked at very US-centric at that it started in the US even though the companies that started it were global including yourself. So we've worked really hard to build our chapters. We've worked really hard to ensure that our exams , our certifications exams are translated into other languages and as well as the professional educational aspect transitioning into different languages.  You've got to go where the region is and what they need and I think that was something that we've learned, the team has learned even though we are Global as a team we all over is that you know you've got to put in the budget to make sure that these exams are translated, you got to trust your chapters them telling you the regional trap just to say you need to do this and this it's not like that in this region compared to the other region. So from an IAAP standpoint it it's really listening to our chapters and pivoting towards them and what they need they're the experts so I think you you're going to see more and more of that type of what is being done and really letting our chapters lead

Shilpi: Brilliant there's the last question are you optimistic or pessimistic about the accessibility profession?

Christopher: You know I am optimistic.  I am truly organically an optimistic person. I believe in the fact that you focus on what you're doing today and if any negative you push that aside. I have a quote that I always keep on my desk here it's a quote I love it's by Albert Einstein that says 'I never think of the future it comes soon enough'. The vast possibilities of our great future will become reality only if we make it happen - it's about making it happen and that we have a great Community to do that and so I'm optimistic that the accessibility field is going to continue to grow. It's going to continue to integrate into mainstream technology. It's going to continue to integrate into hopefully our curriculums and higher education and so on.

Shilpi: Well Chris thank you for doing this conversation with me and thank you from the team at BarrierBreak for supporting #A11yCookies and being a part of this.

Christopher: Thank you Shilpi, thank you to your team at BarrierBreak