Standard Validation Levels

"The barbecue that seats four”, as described by talk show host Johnny Carson, was the Ford Pinto, the first subcompact car produced in North America. This car sadly, had a major problem.

Have you seen the court case about a private safety training organization that was charged and plead guilty to 14 charges relating to the providing of false documents? This organization was found to be issuing training certificates to learners that only participated in 50% of the published course and certifying completion for related components, when there was no evidence that their participation included those components.

While courts, regulators and standard setting bodies are all clear as to what can be considered ‘proof of training’, more and more companies are getting into the business of online training. It is widely known that online training delivery has been characterized as a race to the bottom as many organizations position themselves to offer the cheapest possible training, the shortest duration of training, and training not compliant with regulatory requirements.

Many technology companies assume a normal level of ability across their client base and forget that people with disabilities also participate in the digital world. To appropriately respond to this portion of our population, service providers need to consider accessibility at the design phase and involve persons with disability in the creation and/or testing phases of their technology development.