International Association of Accessibility Professionals Certifications
These are my thoughts on writing the IAAP Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) and Accessible Document Specialist (ADS) exams.
CPACC
Why I liked it
The CPACC covers disability models, law, universal design, and technical applications of accessibility. This certification is important for a holistic approach to accessibility.
Why it's useful
Accessibility core competencies include a recognized, shared language and framework for accessibility work. That helps when I talk with instructors, administrators, and peers at other institutions. While my focus is on digital accessibility, a broader perspective informs that work.
How I will use it
The concepts will feed into my faculty guidance and future development of digital accessibility resources. I also created a practice quiz to prepare for the exam, which serves as a useful practical application of generative AI as a study tool.
ADS
Why I liked it
The ADS is much more hands-on than the CPACC, and it focuses on the documents I fix every day. This certification is a formal badge of my core skillset and solidifies my expertise as a recognized authority.
Why it's useful
Most of the inaccessible content at Langara is in documents, not websites. A credential focused on Word, PowerPoint, and PDF fits the real need.
How I will use it
I'll use what I learned to tighten our document remediation workflows and the training we offer instructors. As with the CPACC, I created a practice quiz to prepare for the exam, which could be held up as an exemplar of a positive use of AI as a study tool.
However...
I completed the CPACC and ADS exams at an onsite testing centre. I cannot sympathize with the absurd security and rigorous identity verification, but it is what it is. The staff had to inspect my wireframe glasses to ensure they weren't AI-enabled. I don't blame them. I blame protocol and the world's insistence on rote memorization as a metric of understanding.
I had previously written a remotely proctored IAAP exam and the process was equally ridiculous. They now use AI for this process, which is known to be discriminatory to disabled people. There is also something incredibly sad and misguided that someone writing an accessibility certification exam may need to be accommodated.
IAAP may have lost sight of the forest for the trees.