The Path to WCAG 2.0 Through IndustryBased Training

Dr Scott Hollier

A/Professor Denise Wood

Web accessibility in Australia

• Australia a signatory to UNCRPD• 18.5% people have some form of

permanent disability • Government policy on web accessibility

ad-hoc and inconsistent until 2010• Catalysts for change:

• WCAG 2.0 release in 2008 • National Broadband Network (NBN) • Gov 2.0

National Transition Strategy (NTS)

• In June 2010, Australian Federal government released NTS

• Three phases: • Preparation phase second half of 2010• Transition phase: 2011 • Implementation phase:

• WCAG 2.0 Level A by end of 2012 • WCAG 2.0 Level AA by end of 2014

Government implementation issues

• Lack of resources • Few staff overseeing NTS • Lack of training and internal materials

• Need to up-skill staff• ICT professionals need WCAG 2.0 training• Unaware of accessibility in authoring tools• Little practical understanding of how people with

disabilities interact online

• Potential solution: create University-backed web accessibility course based on W3C standards

Market research key questions

• What are the key objectives of the course?

• Who is the target audience? • How long should the course run? • Face-to-face component or online only? • What types of assessment would help

students? • Are we reinventing the wheel?

Research results

• Need: to understand how to incorporate accessibility into existing work practices using existing authoring tools

• No obvious existing tertiary-backed course • Basic HTML pre-requisite• Full semester too long, about half the time

would be helpful • Online delivery and flexible with work• Learning to caption video: big priority

CurriculumModules

• How people with disabilities access the Web

• Policy and legislation• WCAG 2.0 Level A (time priority)• WCAG 2.0 Level AA & AAA• ATAG 2.0 (draft) • Basic auditing, good V bad design, future

technologies (WCAG-EM, WAI-ARIA, HTML5, cloud)

Course assessment and discussion

• Assignments: • Screen reader use with monitor turned off and WCAG

POUR/Guidelines introduction• Captioning of any 2 minute video, ATAG review on an

authoring tool• Creating an accessible website template and audit

report

• Forum: • Includes introductions, general discussion, reflections

on modules • Feedback indicates forum discussion is as important

as curriculum and assessment

Successes and challenges

What worked: • Successful pilot in 2011, three intakes in 2012,

three this year • Integrated accessibility into work practices• Alumni discussion forum created

What’s changed: • Three assignments in six weeks too much,

provided extra time• Refining admin processes

StudentEvaluations

• Before and after: definite shift to advanced knowledge

• Little increase in experts

The future

Course: •Three offerings this year •Ongoing curriculum updates •Incorporation of emerging technologies

W3C: •Looking to support WAI curriculum initiatives and approval processes

Further information

• Course: • www.mediaaccess.org.au/learn

• Dr Scott Hollier: • E-mail: scott.hollier@mediaaccess.org.au• Website: www.mediaaccess.org.au

• A/Prof Denise Wood: • E-mail: denise.wood@unisa.edu.au• Website: www.unisa.edu.au