Accessibility - a natural part of training for web professionals

Funka is collaborating with universities across Europe and IAAP to make pilot courses in web accessibility that can be adapted to educational programmes in for example IT, design, and communication.

Across the EU, there is an increasing demand for web accessibility skills. Anyone who works with digital interfaces - whether as a developer, an editor, a designer, or a procurer – will soon require such skills.  The effect of current and upcoming European legislation, such as the Web Accessibility Directive and the European Accessibility Act, is that more people who work with the web will have to deal with accessibility issues, even if this is not the main focus of their work.

Since this is a new development, there are at the moment very few university courses that include web accessibility in teaching. In a new project funded by Erasmus +, Mid Sweden University , Stuttgart Media University and the University of Genoa will join together with Funka and the IAAP to address the lack of teaching on the subject.

Many universities are interested in providing web accessibility courses but don’t know where to start. In this project, we can give all higher education institutions a foundation to build on, regardless of their educational focus, says Professor Katarina Gidlund at Mid Sweden University.

In this project we will, under the leadership of Mid Sweden University, develop and test a starter-kit for courses in web accessibility. The kit will include both online courses and case study material, as well as guidance and recommendations for how the universities can develop and adapt their own courses.

The aim is to provide universities around the EU with practical tips and tools for introducing web accessibility into the curricula of all relevant educational programmes. In addition, the project will encourage the exchange of experiences and lessons learned.

All educational material prepared in the project will be published on the web and will be open for anyone to access. During the project, workshops will be held in Sweden, Germany and Italy. IAAP will also hold a conference in Stockholm in the spring of 2021, where insights, recommendations and good examples will be presented to the public.

IWAC-project website, opens in new window


Funding: Erasmus +
Consortium: Mid Sweden University (project coordinator), Stuttgart Media University, Genoa University, IAAP and Funka
Period: October 2019 - September 2021
Budget: SEK 3 million

Project update

  • Web accessibility in Higher education - webinar

    On the 19th of February, IAAP Nordic in cooperation with its project partners: Funka, Mittuniversitetet, Mediauniversity in Stuttgart and University in Genova co-organized a webinar. The event was a part of the IWAC research project.