Abstract

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) states that disabled people have the same rights as everyone else in society, and that impairments must not be used as an excuse to deny or restrict people’s rights. Designers are responsible for creating accessible products and services that individuals interact with, empowering disabled people to access those rights. However, accessibility maturity in Aotearoa New Zealand is low, with many designers lacking awareness and core competencies in accessible design, resulting in barriers to access. We report on the development and content of a micro-credential course developed with the Aotearoa New Zealand government and disabled people’s organizations to improve accessibility competencies amongst designers. Additionally, we report five themes developed from interviews with accessibility professionals to understand what core competencies designers need. We analyze how these core competencies in digital accessibility align with our micro-credential and other international standards, and indicate areas for improvement in curricula. It is important to better understand and deliver the education needed by designers so we can improve accessibility maturity within the design workforce. This will result in a more inclusive and equitable experience for disabled people in alignment with our human rights commitments.