With the new micro-credential, we are addressing the needs of people with disabilities in the digital age, where virtually all residents encounter digital documents and services.
Today, a large portion of digital content is created by users who are unaware of the accessibility issues of this content for people with disabilities, who use digital aids and assistive technologies to view it, such as screen readers, braille displays, and real-time captions. Ensuring accessibility for this group is not just good practice, but a requirement under the Act on the Accessibility of Websites and Mobile Applications of the Public Sector (ZDSMA), which has been in effect since 2018. This law mandates all public institutions to provide accessible online content and applications. Furthermore, the Act on the Accessibility of Products and Services for Persons with Disabilities (effective from June 2025) will also require businesses to offer accessible versions of many electronic services and content (ZDPSI).
To enhance the skills required for creating and evaluating digital content in an accessible format, we have developed specialized training under the NOO ULTRA project titled “Ensuring Digital Content Accessibility for People with Disabilities.” The target audience for this training includes all digitally literate residents of Slovenia who, in one way or another, create and share digital documents that, without proper adaptations, are unsuitable for people with disabilities (this also includes the elderly population due to age-related vision and hearing impairments).
The training will be conducted by Professor Dr. Matevž Pogačnik, who will present participants with:
- Various user experiences of people with different forms of disabilities, along with examples of content and documents that are inaccessible to them,
- Specific challenges faced by blind, visually impaired, deaf, hard of hearing, motor-impaired, and cognitively impaired individuals when consuming digital content,
- A brief overview of Slovenian legislation outlining the requirements for ensuring digital accessibility,
- Relevant standards and criteria,
- Accessible multimedia and office content, including examples of good and bad practices,
- Basic principles for designing accessible content for vulnerable groups,
- Methods for evaluating web content,
- Methods for evaluating office documents,
- The use of screen readers and text-to-speech technology when consuming content,
- Advanced technological tools for ensuring accessibility, and
- Trends in the field of accessibility
The training will be delivered through a combination of lectures, practical exercises, independent work with online materials, and independent work on practical projects. Participants who successfully pass the theoretical knowledge test in written form and complete a small practical project at the end of the course will receive 2 ECTS credits. The first session of the training is expected to begin in December 2024. Applications will be available through the ict-academy.si portal.
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The project is co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Innovation, and the European Union – NextGenerationEU.
