Dr Scott Hollier and Associate Professor Denise Wood present at Web For All 2013 on the Professional Certificate in Web Accessibility and how the course is enabling the Australian Government to comply with WCAG 2.0.

1. The Path to
WCAG 2.0
Through Industry
Based Training
Dr Scott Hollier
A/Professor Denise Wood

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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?

6. 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

7. Curriculum
Modules
• 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)

8. 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

9. 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

10. Student
Evaluations
• Before and
after: definite
shift to
advanced
knowledge
• Little increase
in experts

11. The future
Course:
•Three offerings this year
•Ongoing curriculum updates
•Incorporation of emerging technologies
W3C:
•Looking to support WAI curriculum
initiatives and approval processes

12. 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