I passed my CPACC exam!
Certified Fresh!
After a few months of study and revision, I took, and passed, my CPACC exam. This means I’m now a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Compentencies. I think the title is apt - the knowledge required for this exam covered lots of different aspects of accessibility, in reasonable detail.
This is an internationally recognised qualification from the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP). Whilst it wasn’t a really difficult exam for me, I’m still proud and more than a little relieved to have passed.
The qualification requires knowledge on models and types of disability, universal design, demographics and accessibility standards and laws.
The Exam
The exam itself was quite formal, as described by the clear guidance on IAAP’s website. It was a closed book exam (no looking up the answers) - and I wasn’t allowed anything in the exam room, not even a water bottle. Fortunately, I whizzed through the exam quite quickly, which, for good or for ill, seems ro be my style.
Out of the 100 multiple choice questions, there were about ten questions that I really wasn’t sure on. So after 30 minutes or so going through the questions, I’d got less than a dozen which I’ed flagged to go back to that I needed to mull over some more. Those ten were head-scratchers for me - not because I’d not covered the subject matter, but more because I was reading each question in multiple ways. So I took my best guess.
Driving home from the text centre, I reflected that I’d got at least two questions wrong. I didn’t feel entirely confident that I’d not fluffed it, but a few weeks later, late on a Friday afternoon, I got that very good news!
What next?
This was the first exam I’ve done in a good while and I’m not itching to do loads more. However, the next logical target to aim for would be the Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS) qualification. This, as the name suggests, would be a lot more web focussed, and much more technicall. In many ways, that’s right up my street - so I think I have to start at least thinking about it in earnest now!