Accessibility Academy: Interactive Learning of the WCAG 2.1 Web Accessibility Guidelines

Web accessibility refers to the inclusive practice of developing websites so that people with disabilities can perceive, navigate, understand, and interact with the content effectively. Various sets of guidelines have been proposed to ensure website accessibility, most notably the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Violating such guidelines can have major consequences for the user experience regardless of users' physical or cognitive abilities. However, there is a tendency for developers to ignore website accessibility, especially when it comes to developing sites of increased complexity. Lack of training, lack of managerial and client support, and confusing guidelines are some of the major obstacles to making websites more accessible. This paper presents an educational platform, the Accessibility Academy, which has been designed and developed to inform and educate developers on ensuring web accessibility following a learning by doing approach. The purpose of the platform is to help web developers understand the field of accessibility, how neglecting it can lead to user frustration, and to support them in learning the skills needed to develop accessible websites or audit existing ones. A study involving 79 computer science students found that the Accessibility Academy has a high level of perceived educational experience and usability. Qualitative insights on its strengths and future improvements are also presented.