At Equalize Digital, we are committed to sharing knowledge with others and giving back to our community. As part of that commitment, we recently partnered with the WordPress Foundation’s community team to run an official WordPress Meetup centered around building more accessible websites with WordPress.
We are thrilled to announce that this Meetup has been approved as a source of continuing education credits from the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP).
About the WordPress Accessibility Meetup Group
The WordPress Accessibility Meetup Group is a global group of WordPress developers, designers, and users interested in building more accessible websites. The group meets twice per month for discussions on a variety of topics related to making WordPress websites that can be used by people of all abilities, such as screen reader text, accessible WordPress plugins, user testing, and video captions.
About the IAAP
The International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) is a non-profit membership organization made up of individuals and organizations that are focused on accessibility or want to improve their accessibility knowledge.
The IAAP’s objective is to help their members develop and advance careers in accessibility and support organizations that are looking to integrate accessibility into their everyday processes. One way that the IAAP helps their members achieve these goals is with accessibility certification courses, like the Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC), and the the Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS) certification.
CPACC
The Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) is the IAAP’s foundational certification. It covers broad accessibility concepts, such as types of disabilities, universal design principles, and accessibility standards and laws.
The CPACC is recommended for web professionals who need a base level of web accessibility knowledge to manage and uphold accessibility, but do not need the technical knowledge to design or code web content for accessibility.
WAS
The Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS) certification was created to help web developers, designers, and content creators obtain a level of expertise in web accessibility, with a specific focus on Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. It is a technical-level credential that is intended for web professionals who are expected to evaluate the accessibility of already existing content against WCAG 2.1. and provide feedback and guidance for remediation.
WAS is recommended for professionals with 3-5 years of experience with accessibility. Achieving WAS certification requires HTML programming knowledge, as well as hands-on experience with programmatic code elements, WCAG 2.1 standards, and assistive technology.
IAAP Continuing Ed Credits with the WordPress Accessibility Meetup Group
All IAAP certifications will need to be renewed after three years. One way to renew your certification is with continuing accessibility education credits.
The number of IAAP continuing ed credits that you need to renew your certification will vary based on which certification you’ve completed. For example, CPACC requires 45 hours of continuing education credits, while WAS certification only requires 35 hours continuing education credits.
When you attend a WordPress Accessibility Meetup Group event, you will receive a credit for 1.5 hours of continuing accessibility education. You can use these events to meet your required amount of credits and apply for your certification renewal once you have met your goal.
We are incredibly excited to help web accessibility professionals continue learning about accessibility with IAAP continuing ed credits. It is our hope that this partnership will continue to make the web a more accessible place for everyone.
