EFE – EXPERTISE FROM EXPERIENCE

The purpose of the project is to develop and implement a training program that enables people with disabilities to work as advisers to public authorities in matters related to web accessibility.

People with disabilities have first-hand experiences of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to accessibility on websites and digital environments. In our training program, personal experiences and insights will be woven together with specialist knowledge in web accessibility. These two factors provide course participants with skills that are in demand in the job market.

The goal is for participants to gain a competency that is in demand by public authorities struggling to meet their legal obligations in web accessibility. The project is based on cross-border cooperation between Sweden and the Åland Islands. The course enables the trainees to use their web accessibility skills in both countries.

To applicants

Do you have your own experience of website inaccessibility? For example, that it is difficult to access the information, forms that are tricky to handle, that it is difficult to navigate a website. Want to learn more about how accessible websites are really supposed to work and help fix problems?

The Åland Islands Disability Rights Federation and Funka Foundation are launching a course aimed at you who have a disability and who want to learn more about web accessibility and use your experience to help website owners make their websites more accessible to more people. The project is financed by Interreg Central Baltic, an EU program that supports cross-border cooperation, to solve common challenges together.

You will learn what accessibility means and what requirements are in the legislation. In addition, you will gain hands-on experience supporting website owners in understanding what web accessibility means in practice for users with disabilities.

We start from your own experiences, and you also learn from the other participants. Because the group’s participants have different disabilities, everyone who participates broadens their understanding of the needs of others.

The course is free of charge!

More information for potential applicants can be found under the tab Project materials.

The structure of the course

The course is divided into two parts:

1. A main event in autumn 2024 where you will learn the basics of web accessibility. You get basic knowledge about:

  • What is web accessibility all about and how does it relate to user needs?
  • Laws and standards in web accessibility. What requirements are placed on website owners and how can the supervisory authority follow up on those requirements?
  • The role of users in the follow-up of legal requirements. How can you as a user give constructive feedback about lack of accessibility on websites (and apps)?
  • Immersion in the requirements that mean the most to you personally.
  • Completion with the requirements that are most important for other participants.

2. A practical part in January/February 2025 where you get to use your skills to try to review websites from authorities and municipalities in Stockholm and the Åland Islands and get feedback – for real! A large part of the focus of the course will be on practical exercises in reviewing websites to identify and describe problems with accessibility from a user perspective. After you have completed the internship, you will receive a certificate showing that you have completed the course.

Information event about web accessibility

On March 7, a seminar was held in Swedish on web accessibility and what the course contains.

If you missed the seminar, you can watch it on our YouTube channel (the video is subtitled): Webbinarium om webbtillgänglighet (opens in new tab)

Here is the PowerPoint presentation from the seminar as an accessible PDF (opens in new tab): Webbtillgänglighet presentation (PDF) (opens in new tab)

Application

Apply through our application form (in Swedish): Application for web accessibility review course (opens in new tab)
The application is open until 19th May 2024.