Web Accessibility in Higher Education – a project funded by Nordplus

With the European Web Accessibility Directive, hundreds of thousands of public sector websites need to comply with the European standard EN301549 on accessibility. There is therefore a strong and growing demand for ICT professionals that are skilled in web accessibility.

However, web accessibility is still considered to be a niche set of skills that most often is not part of the standard curricula of ICT-related programmes at a higher education level. As a result, there is a risk that students miss out on key competences that are sought-after by future employers.

To address this gap, the Nordic chapter of the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP Nordic) is joining forces with four leading universities in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland as well as accessibility specialists company Funka Nu AB to set up a network to promote and strengthen web accessibility education throughout the Nordic countries.

The two year project takes a cross-sectoral approach involving higher education institutes, as well as non-profit and private sector providers of web accessibility training. During the project, partners will analyse the current status of web accessibility training in higher education and gather best practices for dissemination.

A series of workshops and a conference will be organised in 2018 – 2020 to explore questions such as how web accessibility can be better integrated into existing curricula and how to best prepare students for the new demands of the market in this field. The aim is to lay the basis for a broad cross-sectoral co-operation that will encourage innovative ways to advance learning on web accessibility in ICT education.

Join our important project to learn more and share experiences to
lay the basis for a broad cross-sectoral Nordic co-operation, that will encourage innovative ways to advance learning on web accessibility in ICT education.

Contact

Susanna Laurin, Responsible for IAAP Nordic
susanna.laurin@accessibilityassociation.org

The page was updated: December 13, 2023