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Re: WCAG certifications, are there any official requirements to certify a website?

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From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Nov 10, 2011 8:45AM

Bevi

I totally agree with that, my point, and Lucy's too, as I interpreted
it anyway, was that there is no qulaity and reliable certification for
this "industry", for a lack of a better word, not one that requires
significant technical skills and retraining.
I should mention the good work that EASI (Equal Access to Software and
Information) have done with their courses and certification, which is
along the lines you suggested, web and document accessibility.
It's good for what it is, great introduction, and definitely certifies
that you understand the issues involved and you know most of the
standard techniques to deal with them. It also gives you course credit
at the Univrsity of Southern Maine, so it has an academic affiliation.

Good certification to have, but not as technical or specific as I had
in mind, hence my question.
Thanks
-B

On 11/10/11, Bevi Chagnon < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Lucy, I understand your frustration with certifications, but following your
> logic gives us these situations:
>
> Medical diseases and their treatments are not static, yet certification as a
> doctor by a medical board is.
> Laws are not static, yet certification as a lawyer by a legal bar
> association is.
> Continue with this logic for many more professions, including Adobe's ACE
> certifications for its products.
>
> What's needed is a certification process that allows people interested in
> the field to acquire the subject knowledge and be tested. This helps
> prospective employers (or clients) evaluate whether the person has at least
> been exposed to the concepts. No certification program can guarantee that
> the person will perform perfectly for an indefinite time. Medical, legal,
> and other professions require recertification after x period of years.
>
> It's not a perfect system, but it does work for so many other professions.
> Our problem is that we don't have a certification system in place that's
> similar to those used by accountants, lawyers, doctors, engineers, financial
> experts, etc. Those professions have a nonprofit organization that creates
> and oversees a curriculum used by educational institutions. Ideally, the
> nonprofit should adjust the required curriculum as technology changes, and
> provide guidelines on additional learning to keep current with changing
> requirements.
>
> And certification renewal should be required every 2-3 years after attending
> additional courses to keep skills current.
>
> The original poster was asking if there was such a certification program
> available. To the best of my knowledge, no, there isn't. Maybe it's time for
> a nonprofit to step up and put an international certification program in
> place. My hope is that it would focus on accessibility not just for
> websites, but also for Office documents and Acrobat PDFs as well.
>
> --
> Bevi Chagnon | <EMAIL REMOVED>
> PubCom - Trainers, consultants, designers, and developers
> Print, Web, Acrobat, XML, eBooks, and Federal Section 508
> --
> * It's our 30th Year! *
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Lucy Greco
> Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2011 6:06 PM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] WCAG certifications, are there any official
> requirements to certify a website?
>
> As a screen reader user I don't thing surts are worth the bits they are
> written with. Because as we all know web sites are not static and a surt
> is. And what is a surt any way but a pat on the back of a person wanting a
> surt.
>
> Lucy Greco
> Assistive Technology Specialist
> Disabled Student's Program UC Berkeley
> (510) 643-7591
> http://attlc.berkeley.edu
> http://webaccess.berkeley.edu
>
>
>
>