LASIGE’s Accessibility and Ageing research line leader, Carlos Duarte, trained the first group of web accessibility auditors in the country. The intensive training course took place online on the 25th and 26th of October with the participation of 21 trainees. This course is the first to answer the demand for auditors and facilitators of both the Digital Maturity Seal, for private organizations, and the Usability and Accessibility Seal, for public entities.

The course graduated 17 new facilitators that will now be able to submit applications for both seals. Applications submitted by graduated facilitators will be reviewed through a fast-track process. The same graduates can work as web accessibility auditors if employed by a recognized certification organization. This is the first batch of certified web accessibility auditors in Portugal. A remote version of the course will be made available later in the year, ensuring the sustainability of the training process.

Carlos Duarte is the co-chair of the W3C’s Accessibility Conformance Testing Rules Community Group and was a member of the task force that developed the W3C’s Curricula on Web Accessibility. Together with LASIGE’s Tiago Guerreiro and Luís Carriço, he will be teaching FCUL’s new advanced training course on Developing Accessible Web Solutions.