How do you train staff on digital accessibility?

1 Assess your needs

Before you start training your staff, you need to assess your current situation and identify your goals and challenges. What are the accessibility standards and regulations that apply to your industry and region? What are the roles and responsibilities of your staff in relation to digital accessibility? What are the gaps and barriers that prevent them from creating and managing accessible content and platforms? You can use surveys, interviews, audits, or other methods to gather this information and prioritize your training needs.

2 Choose your format

When it comes to delivering accessibility training, you have a range of options that depend on your resources, audience, and objectives. Popular choices include online courses, webinars, workshops, and coaching. Online courses are self-paced and can be tailored to your needs. Webinars are live or recorded sessions that allow for interaction with staff and demonstrate accessibility concepts. Workshops involve hands-on activities and exercises, such as real-world examples, scenarios, and challenges. Coaching is an ongoing support option that provides feedback, guidance, and encouragement to help staff improve their accessibility skills.

3 Cover the basics

No matter what format you select, your accessibility training should encompass the fundamental concepts and elements of digital accessibility. This includes understanding the definition and advantages of digital accessibility, the types and categories of disabilities and assistive technologies, the principles and guidelines of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the common accessibility issues and solutions for different types of content and platforms, as well as the tools and techniques for testing and evaluating accessibility.

4 Make it relevant

To make your accessibility training more effective and engaging, you should tailor it to your staff's specific roles, tasks, and needs. For example, if your staff are content creators, you should focus on how to write, format, and structure accessible text, images, audio, video, and multimedia. If your staff are web developers, you should focus on how to code, design, and implement accessible HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and frameworks. You should also use examples and cases that are relevant to your industry, audience, and brand.

5 Encourage action

The ultimate goal of your accessibility training is to motivate your staff to take action and implement what they have learned. To accomplish this, you should set clear and measurable accessibility goals and expectations, provide incentives and recognition for achieving accessibility outcomes, create a culture of accessibility and inclusion in your organization, offer ongoing support and resources for accessibility improvement, and solicit feedback and monitor progress and impact.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?