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Re: IAAP Certification Update

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From: Katie Haritos-Shea GMAIL
Date: Sep 14, 2015 2:08PM

Jon,

I do not claim to speak for anyone other than myself here.....

I want to explain why I am at the table. I agree with you that we all have something to offer, I am completely against giving the impression that a person who has been in this field for many years is unskilled with nothing to offer. They are skilled within the confines of their experiences.

I am really not as concerned as others are by what some refer to as 'pretenders'. I think when I was working in Accessibility for 5 years I felt myself 'skilled' (while of course understanding that one could never understand the depths of all topics and technologies unless one worked with them on a daily basis).At 10 years in I am sure I felt the same, and so on. But regardless - I know that I am skilled 'within the confines of my experience'. Which is to say there will always be aspects of accessibility I will probably never be that good at, because I did not have the opportunity to work in that space.

That said, I do understand why companies needs some level of idea of whether or not a person has the requisite skills to fill a need BEFORE they go to the expense and time of hiring them. Not everyone in our business, nay I would say few, are famous bloggers or speakers out in the world making an A11Y name for themselves. Most are quietly doing their jobs in universities, companies, agencies - and often referencing, learning and keeping up-to-date as they can with those loud and less loud resources - such as this one, WebAIM.

How do those people, who are very skilled without creds, or a name for themselves, get traction? Find a job, or a new job? How do new people just getting into this work build up a skill set that can help them move into any kind of Accessibility related environment?

I think the day for certification in our industry has come.

What it will eventually look like, I think, will be a combination of certifying organizations, universities and Accessibility organizations (W3C WAI, WebAIM, etc), working in tandem and together - to make that happen. IAAP's certification process *can*be one of those pieces of the puzzle.

I am at this table because the IAAP put out a call for volunteers to join their various organizing committees - as they were sort of pushed to do by our A11Y community to be more inclusive. They asked all and anyone. I answered. I do not work for any founding member or current member organization of IAAP. I wanted the opportunity to help and have a voice - so that the committees were NOT only run by founding members and large companies. And frankly, I am tired of people bitching without offering viable options to what IAAP could offer. If the people who are so concerned would just come to the table and add their voice, and frankly, their time and hard work - it is much less likely to go off the rails - where many unknowing people - assume it has already gone.

I volunteer my time to help. I will not even be eligible to take the certification - as I have been part of the beginnings of the process. I do NOT feel I know more than others. I know that I have many areas that are lean - I have however been fortunate enough to work for government, industry, for an Accessibility tool company as well as within the W3C for the last 15 years. I do think I have some valuable things to contribute - but again it is based on the confines of my experiences. When I was made a Section 508 Coordinator for a US federal agency, I WISH that there had been some place for me to go to learn. In place of any formal training I perused and learned from the W3C and work being done in Australia and Canada - as they had related Accessibility incidents and topics in a language I could understand (one of the confines of my experiences).

All will make their own decisions about what to do about IAAP. I have chosen to lend my voice to the effort, and join as an individual member. Do I call out issues when I see them? You bet I do! Is anyone in IAAP listening? They are, and continue to do so. Do I preach about this (other than to a friend or three)? Only here and now.

Just like all things it is good to *learn the facts*, before dissing something out of hand. Has the criticism helped this organization? Yes, it has.

My 2 cents!



* katie *

Katie Haritos-Shea
Senior Accessibility SME (WCAG/Section 508/ADA/AODA)

Cell: 703-371-5545 | <EMAIL REMOVED> | Oakton, VA | LinkedIn Profile | Office: 703-371-5545