WAI Curricula

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Links

• Curricula first page on WAI website
• Requirements Analysis for supporting material
• Designer Modules Working Draft draft.
• Open issues on curricula

Objective

The objective of this resource is to provide a set of role-based curricula for web accessibility. A curriculum defines the competences and skills for each role, and outlines a set of teaching units to achieve the required knowledge. Each teaching unit describes the goals, learning objectives, teaching materials, proposed teaching and assessment methods, and other aspects. Educators may use this resource to develop online and in-class courses. They may follow entire curricula or use only parts, to create custom courses for their particular needs.

Note: This is not a self-study course.

Curricula Audience

Primary audience of this resource is any educator -- someone who provides formal or informal training. Examples include:

• Trainer, teacher, consultant, expert, and other instructors
• Course owner, designer, maintainer, or otherwise managing courses
• Manager responsible for acquiring courses or establishing training

The delivery of courses based on these curricula can be any combinations of in-class, online, and in-house training.

Out of scope: Someone wants to learn about web accessibility. They may be able to benefit from this resource as an outline for self-tuition, but they are not the primary audience for this particular resource (hopefully many good courses will result from this resource).

Example Scenarios

Examples of usage scenarios include the following:

• A web design instructor wants to provide an online course on accessible web design -- the instructor can use the curriculum for web designers and combine it with more specific examples from their own experience as an instructor (eg. emphasize particular tips and tricks).
• University professor teaches a course on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and wants to include accessibility aspects -- the professor refers to related teaching units and selects specific learning objectives and teaching materials to incorporate into the course on HCI.
• A consultant wants to provide an in-house training for a client -- the consultant selects relevant teaching units from different curricula and tailors examples to the particular context of the client (eg. uses examples from the same industry sector as the client etc.).
• An accessibility trainer wants to describe the content of their course for procurers comparing courses -- the trainer refers to related curricula and teaching units to enumerate the topics and learning objectives addressed by their course, in a comparable format.

Potential Roles to Address

Some of the potential audiences that the curricula address could include:

• Non-technical authors (aligns with ARRM Design Roles - Content Creation)
• Managers (aligns with ARRM Management Roles)
• Designers (aligns with ARRM Design Roles - UI/UX Design)
• Developers (aligns with ARRM Implementation Roles)
• QA Testers (aligns with ARRM Testing Roles)
• Procurement
• Management/Leadership:
  • Executives
  • Human Resources
  • Legal/Compliance
• (Advocates/Users/Champions?
• (Business Analysts)
• ...

Deliverables

This effort will result in the following:

1. Resource, potentially multi-page dynamic, containing curricula and teaching units
2. Content for each curriculum and each teaching unit that is part of this resource
3. Potentially guidance for trainers on using this resource or on providing training
   1. Know your audience - what do they need to learn? This will define the emphasis of what you teach (Brent & Sam)
   2. Example: Making Presentations Accessible
   3. (idea) List of courses developed using these curricula
   4. (idea) What to look for when selecting courses (quality criteria)
   5. (idea) explanation of different types of degrees/qualifications
   6. iNACOL National Standards for Quality Online Courses (v2) (Brent)
   7. iNACOL National Standards for Quality Online Teaching (v2) (Brent)

Approach

• Start with an introductory module, as most roles will likely need such an introductory module ("101")
• Build this introductory module using blocks of teaching units, to develop a framework for other modules
• Continue with a full curriculum for a (high-demand) role, for example "web developer" or "web designer"
• Continue with a second full curriculum, and start developing a (dynamic) user-interface for the content
• Consider which supporting guidance is needed to help audience of this resource to use it effectively
• Continue with more roles based on the established framework, possibly needing to refine it somewhat

Draft Outline

	Developer	Designer	Author	Manager	Tester
Basic	Introduction to Web Accessibility Overview and Terminology People and Digital Technology Business Case and Benefits Standards and Guidelines Get Started with Accessibility
Intermediate	Structure and Semantics Navigation and Menus Forms and Input Elements Widgets and Interaction Testing Your Content	Use of Color Typography Navigation and Orientation Instructions and Feedback Widgets and Interaction Testing Your Content	Headings and Structure Text Alternatives for Images Alternatives for Media Office Accessibility (???) Tables and Data Representation Testing Your Content	Accessibility Quick Check Business Opportunities Capacity and Capability Tools and Processes Policies and Procurement	Understanding Conformance Accessibility Testing Tools Using Assistive Technologies Prioritizing Issues and Repair Maintaining Accessibility
Advanced	Mobile Applications Transactions and Timing Games Accessibility (???) Immersive Environments (???) Testing Your Content	Responsive Accessibility Pop-Ups and Dialogs Multi-Page Processes @@@ Testing Your Content	PDF Accessibility (???) SVG Accessibility MathML Accessibility Testing Your Content

Related Resources

• Developing Web Accessibility Presentations and Training
  • Serves a similar purpose and contains useful "topics" that could be turned into "teaching units". It may be replaced by these new resources, fully or in-part.
• Accessibility Roles and Responsibilities Mapping
  • Provides useful definition of potential roles and mapping to specific accessibility roles, responsibilities, and criteria
• Stakeholder Roles
  • Lists many types of audiences and why they may want to use the guidelines
• Entire WAI website
  • Tutorials, Easy Checks, BAD, Perspectives Videos, Getting Started Tips, Business Case, Planning and Managing, etc. are all potential teaching materials.

Note: Previous EOWG outlines on Curriculum & Course Materials and Promoting Accessibility in Courses

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the EC-funded WAI-Guide Project.