Involving, empowering and training end users with disability to fully participate in the Web Accessibility Directive objectives
▶Summary
Public sector bodies (PSB) across Europe need to be aware of accessibility issues on their websites and mobile applications, to be able to prioritise and remediate web accessibility barriers. End ...
▶Objectives
The main objective of this project was raising awareness and empower and train people with disabilities to actively participate in the implementation of the Web Accessibility Directive (WAD) through the feedback mechanism and complaint system. This permits also to leverage the knowledge of people with disabilities on accessibility issues and to engage them to be an active and essential part of the digital community. Within the project, a methodological toolkit for collecting and categorising user feedback and an interactive repository of best practices for structuring and reporting on web accessibility issues were developed. Based on this, a model curriculum for the design of vocational training courses for training people with disabilities on digital accessibility and feedback was created in English, translated to German, French and Swedish, and validated with the target group in Germany, Sweden, and France. As a further result, practical guidelines for transferring the curriculum to different contexts and member states across Europe were prepared to facilitate the development of specialised vocational training courses in this field.
▶Activities
To achieve the main central objective of the project four main results needed to be developed: a methodological toolkit on how to capture and categorise feedback from users in the context of web accessibility (PR1), an interactive repository of best practices on structuring and reporting web accessibility issues (PR2), co-creation of four model curricula (ENG, DE, FR, SE) to set up a VET courses on how to train people with disabilities to provide relevant and actionable feedback on web accessibility (PR3) and practical guidelines on how to empower people with disabilities to effectively contribute to WAD objectives, providing structured and relevant feedback on accessibility problems (PR4). As planned, the project activities were divided into three different steps: In the first step, consortium partners gathered information regarding the practice of end user with disabilities and best practices on providing structured feedback on accessibility issues. This step included desk research as well as surveys, interviews and a workshops and layed ground for the development of the model curriculum in phase two. This first phase of the project lead to the production of PR1 and PR2. In the second step, consortium partners developed the model curriculum on how to involve, egange and training users with disabilities in providing structured feedback regarding accessibilities problems. After review and completion the english model curriculum was localized and adapted to three national contexts: Germany, France and Sweden. The model curriculum was developed based on PR1 and PR2 from phase one. The outcome of step 2 was the model curricula in English and its localised versions in german, french and swedish. In the last step the consortium partners focused on facilitating outreach, scaling up and implementation of the project results. The outcomes of this phase were a set of practical guidelines (PR4), a scaling up process with other organisations (VET providers and DPOs) to disseminate the project results in other EU countries, and a final online multiplier event for overall dissemination of the results and fostering adoption. In addition to the planned multiplier events, further national and international workshops and meetings were held to validate and disseminate the results of the project. This included both practitioners (VET providers and DPOs) and the scientific community.
▶Impact
PR1: Methodological toolkit on how to capture and categorise feedback from users in the context of web accessibility, published as accessible and downloadable digital document PR2: Interactive repository of best practices on how to provide structured feedback regarding web accessibility issues, published as interactive accessible digital document PR3: Model curriculum to set up a VET courses to on how to train people with disabilities to provide relevant and actionable feedback on web accessibility, developed in english and localised and translated for german, french and swedish, published as accessible and downloadable documents PR4: Practical guidelines on how to empower and training people with disabilities on providing quality feedback on accessibility problems, published as accessible and downloadable document Organisation of scientific and practical workshops and publication of various conference papers: PIAZZA 2022 IKT Forum 2023 HCI 2023 AAATE 2023 HCI 2024 IKT Forum 2024 ICCHP 2024 PR1: Methodological toolkit on how to capture and categorise feedback from users in the context of web accessibility PR2: Interactive repository of best practices on how to provide structured feedback regarding web accessibility issues PR3: Model curriculum to set up a VET courses to on how to train people with disabilities to provide relevant and actionable feedback on web accessibility PR4: Practical guidelines on how to empower and training people with disabilities on providing quality feedback on accessibility problems Organisation of various workshops (scientific and practical) and scientific publications: PIAZZA 2022 IKT Forum 2023 HCI 2023 AAATE 2023 IKT Forum 2024 HCI 2024 ICCHP 2024