One way to continuously improve and monitor accessibility is to train all the team members involved. There are plenty of free resources online and many companies offer quality training on various accessibility topics.
Increasing accessibility awareness will help systematically improve the accessibility of services people work on. When accessibility awareness increases, the prioritisation of accessibility likely increases in the process.
It’s important to stay on track with the latest accessibility guidelines, standards and laws. There is usually a lot of information on these topics as changes are announced. Many companies will write about these topics in their company blogs.
While certifications are in no way required to prove a person is knowledgeable about accessibility, they might still help. But if you are in a situation where you can’t pay for a certificate, I want to emphasise again that these certifications aren’t required. And the lack of certifications doesn’t lessen your expertise.
I started my certification journey with a free course: W3Cx: Introduction to Web Accessibility course. The course has a paid certificate option.
IAAP (International Association of Accessibility Professionals) offers several certification options. And out of these, IAAP WAS (Web Accessibility Specialist) requires you to have three to five years of proven accessibility experience. So getting this certification will also help to show you have experience in the field. When people are asked about qualified accessibility auditors and how to check for that, this certification comes up often. But it’s good to be aware that these certifications are not free, and they aren’t cheap. My current employer luckily saw the value in me getting certified and they paid the exam fees.
It’s not usually enough to get trained once. There is always much more to learn, even when you are an experienced accessibility specialist. I recommend aiming towards understanding what accessibility really means instead of focusing just on the requirements of the law. While they are important, the law sets only the minimum we should aim for.