Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo E&O Manager IWA/HWG Italy...

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe

Roberto CastaldoE&O Manager IWA/HWG Italy

[email protected]

Roberto CastaldoE&O Manager IWA/HWG Italy

[email protected]

First European e-Accessibility ForumAccessible on-line services, a benefit for all

Paris, Jan 29 2007

2Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe

Roberto Castaldo – [email protected]

Agenda

• Today’s Web

• Who’s a Web Professional?

• IWA/HWG challange



Today’s Web

• Web quality– Web Standards

– Accessibility

– Usability

• Many developers are not aware of them



Today’s Web

How many “web professionals”

use visual-only tools?



Today’s Web

How many “web professionals”

know what accessibility is?



Gaps…

• Web Developers– Deal with pages, db, code…

• Web Managers – Decide what and how

• Teachers– Transmit technical knowledge

and ethical values



Developers’ gaps

• Creating usable and accessible Web sites: – Requires “some” technical

skills– Will never be automated– Is not so difficult

• Bad habits are hard to defeat



Managers’ gaps

• Managers ignore that:– Web is not TV – Accessibility is NOT an

optional– Accessible Web sites are not

necessarily ugly



Teachers’ gaps

• Teachers– Are developers themselves

– Risk to transfer and pass on their gaps and lacks



Education

•Technical knowledge– Web standards, languages,

best practices and tools

•Ethical codes and moral values– Users needs, universal

access, pwd rights



The Webmaster’s Fairytale

Once upon a time…

there was a Webmaster

The webmaster

I can build any Web site

I can do all about theWeb

I can build any Web site

I can do all about theWeb




• Today– Technologies and tools have

changed

– Webmaster is an unspecific and out-of-date word

– “I-can-do-all” easily means “I-can-do-nothing-well”

The webmaster




• Today– A single Webmaster cannot

develop by himself a complex Web application

– Working groups are better•Many professions (and

professionals) working together

The webmaster




• So, Web professionals should be able to:– Specialize in one specific area

– Learn to work in team

– Share their experiences and skills

The webmaster




The Webmasters fairytale is over, and there’s no happy ending.

The webmaster



• The Web broke many old

rules in all human activities

New markets New professions

•Old professions transformed

Web professions



New Web professions

•Which are the new Web professions?

•Which are the skills each of them requires?



Web professions’ pitfall

• Face this new market off the cuff– Think up professions in

peculiar and odd ways

• Reach completely uncertain and not comparable skills



Web professions’ challenge

• Encourage a systematic approach

• Guarantee the diffusion of a basic, minimum, homogeneous and comparable set of skills



Web professions’ challenge

• New rules and professions require new and common educational paths

• So Web professionals will get that common knowledge that new Web professions require



IWA/HWG

• Non-profit professional association – 106 countries

– 130 local offices

– >160.000 associated

http://www.iwa.eu



IWA/HWG mission

• Provide and foster to its members:– Motivations to work correctly

to enhance their effectiveness, image, and professionalism

– Professional advancement opportunities



IWA/HWG

Is involved with:• W3C• ISO• EAC (EuroAccessibility Consortium)

• Italian Government– “Stanca Act”, the Italian law about Web

accessibility



IWA/HWG

Is involved with:• W3C• ISO• EAC (EuroAccessibility Consortium)

• Italian Government– “Stanca Act”, the Italian law about Web

accessibility

Gabriele Bartolini - Evaluation & Repair Tools WG

Marco Bertoni - WCAG WG

Alessio Cartocci - Multimedia Semantics Incubator WG

Roberto Castaldo - E&O, WGAC WGs

Roberto Ellero - Multimedia Semantics Incubator and WCAG WG

Fabrizio Gramuglio - Multimodal Interaction, Voice Browser WG

Gez Lemon – WCAG WG

Ben Logan - Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) WG

Luca Mascaro - Device Independence, HTML, Web APIs, Web Application Formats, WCAG WGs

Giorgio Natili - Mobile Web Best Practice, Mobile Web Initiative Test Suites WGs

Sebastiano Nutarelli – WCAG WG

Pasquale Popolizio – E&O, Internationalization Guidelines, Education & Outreach (GEO), Multimedia Semantics Incubator WGs, Semantic Web Education and Outreach (SWEO) Interest Group

Roberto Scano - Advisory Committee, ATAG, Internationalization Guidelines, Education & Outreach (GEO), WCAG WGs

Robert Sobkoviak - Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) WG



IWA/HWG actions

• Education of professionals/teachers– Technical seminaries and

structured courses

• Education guidelines– CWP WAS (Certified Web Professional

- Web Accessibility Specialist)

– IEAS (IWA European Accessibility Syllabus)



CWP WAS skill profiles

• WAS Web Operator– Basic common skills

• WAS Web Designer• WAS Content Manager• WAS Application Developer

• WAS Certified Trainer



IEAS IWA European Accessibility Syllabus

5 days, 5 modules1.Users & Web, markup

languages, XHTML2.CSS, Cascade Style Sheets3.Accessibile Multimedia4.Evaluation 5.Web accessibility laws



CEN and IWA/HWG

• CEN European ICT Skills

Meta-Frameworkftp://ftp.cenorm.be/PUBLIC/CWAs/e-Europe/ICT-Skill/CWA15515-00-2006-Feb.pdf

– Includes IWA/HWG to provide

educational certifications

about Web professions



IWA Web Skills Working Group

Dec 2006 – March 2007

• Mission:– Outline Web professions and

relative skills

• Professionals from:– Public and private companies– Italian government agancies




Skill profile 1

Skills Experience

Web profession

Skill profile 2

Skill profile 3 Web profession 2




Our challenge• Face many different

scenarios • Work for the market• Not copy the market

http://www.skillprofiles.eu



Web professions outlook

• Future Web will count on:

– Global educational system

– Common technical

knowledge

– Shared moral codes



Web outlook

• Future Web professional will

have more technical and

cultural weapons to

make a more accessible

Web, a better Web.



Present

Near future

Links and references

• IWA http://www.iwa.eu, http://www.iwa-italy.org

• CWP WAS skill profiles http://www.iwanet.org/argomento.asp?cat=38

• IEAS class http://www.iwanet.org/argomento.asp?cat=53

• CEN European ICT Skills Meta-Frameworkftp://ftp.cenorm.be/PUBLIC/CWAs/e-Europe/ICT-Skill/CWA15515-00-2006-Feb.pdf

• IWA Skill Profiles Working Group Web site http://www.skillprofiles.eu



Thanks

Thank you foryour attention

Grazie

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo E&O Manager IWA/HWG Italy...

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