Teaching Digital Accessibility to Industry Professionals using the Community of Practice Framework: An Experience Report
Parthasarathy PD, Swaroop Joshi
TL;DR
This study tackles the persistent deficit in digital accessibility skills among software professionals by evaluating a 12-week training program that contrasts a Community of Practice (CoP) approach with self-paced learning. Using 66 participants from a large multinational, the authors design four modules (fundamentals, design, development, reporting) grounded in WCAG-centric curricula and implement them as either CoP-based weekly sessions or LMS-driven self-study, culminating in an accessibility audit. Findings show that CoP participants achieve greater gains in proficiency, confidence as accessibility allies, and practical auditing performance, suggesting CoP’s potential to foster identity formation and sustained practice beyond mere knowledge transfer. The paper offers concrete, practitioner-oriented recommendations—including role-specific content, organization-specific examples, PwD involvement, and gamification—aimed at Learning & Development teams and educators to improve industry training in accessibility and accelerate adoption of accessible software. Data and materials are to be made publicly available, underscoring the study’s commitment to transparency and reproducibility in industry-focused accessibility education.
Abstract
Despite recent initiatives aimed at improving accessibility, the field of digital accessibility remains markedly behind contemporary advancements in the software industry as a large number of real world software and web applications continue to fall short of accessibility requirements. A persisting skills deficit within the existing technology workforce has been an enduring impediment, hindering organizations from delivering truly accessible software products. This, in turn, elevates the risk of isolating and excluding a substantial portion of potential users. In this paper, we report lessons learned from a training program for teaching digital accessibility using the Communities of Practice (CoP) framework to industry professionals. We recruited 66 participants from a large multi-national software company and assigned them to two groups: one participating in a CoP and the other using self-paced learning. We report experiences from designing the training program, conducting the actual training, and assessing the efficiency of the two approaches. Based on these findings, we provide recommendations for practitioners in Learning and Development teams and educators in designing accessibility courses for industry professionals.