Universal Design Curriculum for Training ICT Professionals

1. Universal Design Curriculum for Training ICT Professionals Dónal Rice Centre for Excellence in Universal Design, NDA Introduction Published in April 2011, the CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA) “Curriculum for Training ICT Professionals in Universal Design” is a European standard that specifies curriculum for training ICT professionals in Universal Design. • Results ctd… • Each topic is further differentiated according to different levels of granularity (Fig. 2): • Introduction: 15 minutes to 30 minutes. (I) • Major Aspects: 4 hours to 12 hours. (M) • Details: 16 hours to 30 hours (D) • Fig 2: Course structure • The CWA describes a number of indicative ICT professional roles and provides an associated level of knowledge for each topic. • Fig 3: Typical training requirements for different professional roles • Discussion/ Conclusion • The CWA is the first European standard that deals explicitly with Universal Design for ICT and the first to be published in accessible PDF format. It is available for free download from the CEN website (ftp://ftp.cen.eu/CEN/Sectors/TCandWorkshops/Workshops/CWA16266.pdf) Aim The training guidelines aim to reflect the special training needs of ICT professionals, the conditions and context of training for professionals, and the different needs of different professional roles in the ICT industry. It identifies the knowledge and skills that are necessary to successfully implement the Universal Design approach in an ICT development process. Methods A typical standards development process was followed that incorporated three drafting and two public consultation cycles during which several hundred comments were received and reviewed. Results The CWA provides a list of 10 topics to be covered in training ICT professionals in Universal Design. (Fig. 1). Detailed readings lists and other resources including any existing training courses were provided in annexes to the document. • 10 Topics: • Target user groups of UD • User interfaces and UD • User-centred design and UD • UD for Web applications • UD for Games and consumer electronics • Software architecture and UD • Assistive technology • Evaluation of UD • Business cases for UD • UD Policy and Legislation Fig 1: Topics Acknowledgements National Standards Authority of Ireland CEN (European Committee for Standardisation)