Continuing on the journey of accessibility certifications

Last year I passed the Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS) certification. IAAP (International Association of Accessibility Professionals) also provides another certification - CPACC (Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies). If someone passes both of these exams, they get a Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA) certificate as well. This was my goal because I had noticed a lot of public speakers had this certificate. In my mind, the certificate would hopefully convince my brain that I know my stuff when it comes to accessibility. 

I applied for a training budget so that I wouldn't need to pay for this certification out of my pocket. And luckily once again Exove saw the value in me continuing my journey.

Preparing for the exam

After liking Deque's WAS preparation course, I immediately knew I wanted to buy the CPACC preparation course as well. I was eager to get started on my studies before knowing if I would be able to get the budget for the certificate so this time I did buy the preparation course on my own. The course helped me once again to have some structure in my studies.  

Once again I struggled with the vague outline for the studies because I always need clear guidance on what to study. However, I used the other materials available quite extensively. The flashcards and the Jeopardy game IAAP shared were some of the first ones I started to use to help me study.

I wanted to focus my studies on things that would be useful in my work. So instead of focusing on dates or other things like this, I took a deeper dive into the different models of disabilities and the various disabilities themselves. This kind of information, especially more extensive knowledge of it, will certainly help me in my work as well.

Applying for the exam

I thought to use the same approach as with the WAS exam - the last exam slot of the year and the last day possible to take it. Funnily enough, the last available exam day was a week before the exam slot ended so I kind of lost one week of study time. Luckily I had started studying early, so I had finished the topics multiple times already and didn't start to panic.

The exam

I once again asked for the extra hour available for non-native speakers. To make sure I had time to pause and think of the words and sentences that might not be obvious to me. The language did not cause any issues, there were no words I didn't understand. I didn't end up needing the extra time, which wasn't a surprise because I've always been quite fast at exams for some reason. Maybe it's the panic and fear that cause me to just fill something in quickly and leave. But I went through the exam questions twice, just like last time. And unfortunately, again I decided to change an answer I was unsure about... and it would have been correct if I didn't stop doubting my intuition. Oh well, this is something that I always do.

Waiting for the results

They say results come after four to six weeks after the exam slot closes. This time the results came 3 weeks after the exam, which I wasn't expecting. What a nice early Christmas present for me because after leaving work on Friday I happened to check my email in the evening and two emails were waiting for me. One congratulated me on passing the CPACC exam and another congratulated me on getting the CPWA certificate. I couldn't be happier and I feel proud of myself. Can't wait to tell the good news to my friends and colleagues as well.