I have just celebrated a milestones of sorts in my accessibility career. I received notice that my most recent request for Education Credits to count towards the renewal requirements for my CPWA certification was accepted, landing me at -0,75 credits still required. In other words, I’m all set for my renewal in 2027!

Unfortunately I’m a little too late to joke that I finished baking my cakes as Education Credits were recently renamed from CAECs (Continuing Accessibility Education Credits), pronounced cakes. 🙂

What are Education Credits?

Before I go on to how I did it, let me give you some basic info. IAAP has several accessibility certification and all of them have different targets for Education Credits needing to be met before renewal. For CPWA, Certified Professional in Web Accessibility, the requirement is 55 credits and the validity period for the certification is 3 years.

Education Credits can be earned in three ways: Professional Development, Sharing your Accessibility Knowledge and Structured Volunteering. Professional Development is the most straightforward to explain: you participate in webinars, courses, conferences or similar, and the time spent is put down as Education Credits. So a webinar lasting 1 hour gives 1 EC.

For more detailed information, visit Certification: Maintain and the Education Credits FAQ over at IAAP.

How I gained my Education Credits

I gained credits in two ways, Professional Development (50 EC) and Sharing your Accessibility Knowledge (5 EC).

My Professional Development credits

I have watched webinars and participated in conferences and a workshop, onsite as well as online. I’ve also counted credits for participating in certificant surveys here.

Webinars: around 20 webinars from various providers, ranging from 15 minutes to 1,5 hours in length. 17 EC

Workshop (IAAP in Helsinki): 4 EC

Conferences (all but one IAAP): 5 conferences, 28 EC

Certificant Survey: 2 surveys, 1 EC

My Sharing Knowledge credits

I earned 5 EC for blogging here at a11yblog.com!

And what do I think?

I’ve found it helpful to have this external motivation for continuing education. When I want to spend work time attending a conference, there’s always a clear justification to rely on. During periods of high workload, it can be challenging to set aside time for professional development, but I’ve been able to dedicate more time to it during quieter periods. And I did finish way ahead of the deadline, so the burden wasn’t too heavy.

I’m glad IAAP released their new online portal for applying for ECs shortly after I started to record my EC progress. The portal makes it a lot easier than it was before. It does however take some time to get credits approved, so I wouldn’t recommend waiting until the last minute.

Knowledge in the accessibility field, as in many others, is perishable, and I appreciate the extra motivation to stay updated.