Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo E&O Manager IWA/HWG Italy Roberto Castaldo E&O Manager IWA/HWG Italy First European e-Accessibility Forum Accessible on-line services, a benefit for all Paris, Jan

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 2 Agenda Today’s Web Who’s a Web Professional? IWA/HWG challange

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 3 Today’s Web Web quality –Web Standards –Accessibility –Usability Many developers are not aware of them

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 4 Today’s Web How many “web professionals” use visual-only tools?

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 5 Today’s Web How many “web professionals” know what accessibility is?

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 6 Gaps… Web Developers –Deal with pages, db, code… Web Managers –Decide what and how Teachers –Transmit technical knowledge and ethical values

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 7 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

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 8 Managers’ gaps Managers ignore that: –Web is not TV –Accessibility is NOT an optional –Accessible Web sites are not necessarily ugly

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 9 Teachers’ gaps Teachers –Are developers themselves –Risk to transfer and pass on their gaps and lacks

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 10 Education Technical knowledge –Web standards, languages, best practices and tools Ethical codes and moral values –Users needs, universal access, pwd rights

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 11 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

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 12 The Webmaster’s Fairytale Today –Technologies and tools have changed –Webmaster is an unspecific and out-of-date word –“I-can-do-all” easily means “I-can-do-nothing-well” The webmaster

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 13 The Webmaster’s Fairytale Today –A single Webmaster cannot develop by himself a complex Web application –Working groups are better Many professions (and professionals) working together The webmaster

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 14 The Webmaster’s Fairytale So, Web professionals should be able to: –Specialize in one specific area –Learn to work in team –Share their experiences and skills The webmaster

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 15 The Webmaster’s Fairytale The Webmasters fairytale is over, and there’s no happy ending. The webmaster

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 16 The Web broke many old rules in all human activities New markets New professions Old professions transformed Web professions

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 17 New Web professions Which are the new Web professions? Which are the skills each of them requires?

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 18 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

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 19 Web professions’ challenge Encourage a systematic approach Guarantee the diffusion of a basic, minimum, homogeneous and comparable set of skills

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 20 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

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 21 IWA/HWG Non-profit professional association –106 countries –130 local offices –> associated

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 22 IWA/HWG mission Provide and foster to its members: –Motivations to work correctly to enhance their effectiveness, image, and professionalism –Professional advancement opportunities

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 23 IWA/HWG Is involved with: W3C ISO EAC (EuroAccessibility Consortium) Italian Government –“Stanca Act”, the Italian law about Web accessibility

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 24 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

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 25 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)

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 26 CWP WAS skill profiles WAS Web Operator –Basic common skills WAS Web Designer WAS Content Manager WAS Application Developer WAS Certified Trainer

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 27 IEAS IWA European Accessibility Syllabus 5 days, 5 modules 1.Users & Web, markup languages, XHTML 2.CSS, Cascade Style Sheets 3.Accessibile Multimedia 4.Evaluation 5.Web accessibility laws

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 28 CEN and IWA/HWG CEN European ICT Skills Meta-Framework ftp://ftp.cenorm.be/PUBLIC/CWAs/e-Europe/ICT-Skill/CWA Feb.pdf ftp://ftp.cenorm.be/PUBLIC/CWAs/e-Europe/ICT-Skill/CWA Feb.pdf –Includes IWA/HWG to provide educational certifications about Web professions

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 29 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

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 30 IWA Web Skills Working Group Skill profile 1 SkillsExperience Web profession Skill profile 2 Skill profile 3 Web profession 2

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 31 IWA Web Skills Working Group Our challenge Face many different scenarios Work for the market Not copy the market

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 32 Web professions outlook Future Web will count on: –Global educational system –Common technical knowledge –Shared moral codes

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 33 Web outlook Future Web professional will have more technical and cultural weapons to make a more accessible Web, a better Web.

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 34 Present Near future Links and references IWA CWP WAS skill profiles IEAS class CEN European ICT Skills Meta-Framework ftp://ftp.cenorm.be/PUBLIC/CWAs/e-Europe/ICT-Skill/CWA Feb.pdf ftp://ftp.cenorm.be/PUBLIC/CWAs/e-Europe/ICT-Skill/CWA Feb.pdf IWA Skill Profiles Working Group Web site

Harmonising the Accessibility Expertise in Europe Roberto Castaldo – 35 Thanks Thank you for your attention Grazie