90 Days Loading…
It’s Been A Long Time
It has been a TIME since I last wrote anything! I’ll admit - I am a huge journal-er in my spare time and really enjoy sitting down and getting all of the sane & insane thoughts from my head onto something tangible. Writing is a cathartic exercise for me, but I don’t sit still enough to do it as often as I’d like. But every day is a new day, so that’s changing.
The More You Know, The More You Grow
As my knowledge of the UX design field expands and I continue to work on impactful projects in my workspace, my passion for accessibility in design has deepened. I’ve always designed with accessibility in mind - ensuring that users with disabilities can use the products I work on, whether it’s tied to sight and color contrast issues, or mobility and an inability to use a keyboard to navigate through a website. Creating accessible designs is a pretty major part of being a UI/UX designer.
But, it wasn’t until I took on a project at work to conduct a full accessibility audit of one of our products that my eyes were truly opened to just how many accessibility issues even the most well designed websites have. From missing alt-text on images to incorrectly defining h-tags the number of errors as defined by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) were numerous. WCAG, by the way, are the guidelines or standards that help make websites easier to use for people with disabilities by guiding how to create accessible web content. As it is under Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities act, any website that is created has to comply with WCAG. The consequence if they don’t? Possibly… a big heaping serving of lawsuit stew. Needless to say, it’s a pretty big deal.
And then I started to think about my former students who required services. Are the websites they use helping or hindering them when online? I honestly don’t think so. There was a study conducted by WebAIM that noted that around 96% of websites have a homepage with accessibility errors (WCAG). That means ONLY 4% of websites are fully accessible. That’s wild. And unacceptable.
Acronyms for Days - IAAP & CPAAC
And now, here we are. I want to be a part of the solution and ensure that I am knowledgable on a deeper level of what users with varying disabilities experience, and how the designs I create impacts them on a bigger scale. Enter: IAAP & the CPAAC exam.
I’ve decided to become a member of the IAAP, which is the International Association of Accessibility Professionals. I want to be connected to other accessibility specialists and also have the space to learn and grow more in this space. Within the organization, there are several certifications, which I was really excited to learn about. The Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPAAC) exam covers more practical knowledge as it pertains to disabilities, accessibility in design and laws. There’s also the Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS) exam, which is a bit more technical, as it dives into how to meet success criteria, programming, accessible quality assurance (QA), testing with assistive technology, among other things.
Enter: 90 Days
In this blog post/format, I plan to pass the CPAAC within 90 days of starting. Which means, by me starting to study on 09/01/2024, I plan to have the test passed before 12/01/2024! To keep myself accountable, I am going to post daily what I studied/worked on. I NEED accountability - that’s something I know about myself, and there’s no need to hide what’s real, right? *cue nervous laugh
Since it’s still August, I am going to use the last few days to craft a baby plan/timeline so that I have something to work with and track to see how well I am progressing towards my goal. With that being said, one word is important - GRACE. Though consistency is important, we are humans, which means we are not perfect. So on those days where I may fall short, I am giving myself the grace to pick back up & finish strong, and it’s something that I encourage we all give ourselves. On any plan we have for ourselves, and in life in general.
In the meantime, time to go figure out the deets. Until then, in the quite famous words of the “Confessions” singer - Peace Up, A Town Down. That’s my way of saying ciao.
x Abi
