Accessibility Certification

Person sitting at their apple laptop.

My experience with testing for the Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC)

I was originally scheduled to take this test in June of 2022, but I had to reschedule it due to needing to focus on taking care of my partner. He had a second back surgery that was not planned, so my focus shifted.

Fortunately I had this opportunity to defer taking the test. I scheduled it for August 23, 2022. Let me tell you, that time came a LOT faster than I expected. Even though I had spent months prior to this reading & becoming familiar with the Accessibility Core Competencies, I found myself feeling more focused on the HUMAN aspect of accessibility rather than dealing with the technical level.

Rescheduling was fairly easy.

Dealing with Kryterion to ensure i had everything installed was a bit frustrating. The customer service was ON point though. I started panicking because I couldn’t install the Sentinel app and felt as if I had to update my computer as well. I’m fairly good about keeping my computer up to date.

The platform of Kryterion for taking the test, I did not find to be that accessible! Case in point, the opening video isn’t even captioned.

I do not find myself to be a strong test taker. I am the kind of person that knows my material, but when test time comes around, it all goes out the window. One of their key instructions was that you cannot read the content aloud. Nor could you vocalize your responses. This was something that had me super nervous because in order for me to really focus and comprehend the question, I needed to read the question aloud, or even mouth it to myself.

I got started with taking the test and within 5 minutes, they stopped the test. After waiting for another 2-3 minutes, finally they told me there were issues, and they had to stop the test, and I needed to go to support.

After restarting my computer again, and starting the test back up. I was stopped within 5 minutes. I’m still not quite sure why they stopped me the second time around. I must have been waiting for at least 5 minutes before I showed them a notebook and pen that I had on the side, but hadn’t even touched it at this point. Then they let me proceed forward.

These two sudden stops, really threw me off my game, and disrupted the flow of taking the test. I was terrified of moving too much or moving my mouth too much…but I got through the test. There was definitely some materials that I felt could be a bit confusing.

So let’s talk about what could be improved about the test taking experience:

1. Reminder emails should be sent to people taking the test with the proper link. I did not get any reminders at all. I had to go to my previous emails to find the correct link.

2. Prior to starting the test, proctors should make sure everything is set to go with the computer and any materials that is permissible.

3. Expectations that you need to set up in a quiet room with an uncluttered background. This is NOT realistic. I’ve set up my office as I need it to be.

Studying for the test itself:

1. Deque University

2. International Association of Accessibility Professional had Content Outline and Body of Knowledge to which I basically read through & wrote notes down. It’s how I could retain information.

3. One practice test (I wish there were more practice tests!)

4. Quizlet flash cards & matching & tests (a lot of these had clear errors!)

As for the test itself, I find a few things a bit puzzling:

1. Wording of many of the questions has me easily confused. And they talk about Universal Design of Learning - and how it should be simple and concise.

2. Why the results aren’t immediate? I have to wait 4-6 weeks.

I guess I’ll find out my results sometimes in September or October. I hope I pass because I really don’t want to go through this again!