Advisory Board
An interdisciplinary advisory board representing the various disciplines and competencies of the accessibility community was set up as supervisory body. This Advisory Board also aims at promoting the further development of the WACA certification system. It monitors the certification process and selects the auditors. It is incorporated in a separate association: WACA – Association for the Promotion of Accessibility in Information and Communication Technology. The WACA Advisory Board is composed of members of the following organisations:
- Austrian Association in Support of the Blind and Visually Impaired (It also functions as WACA’s processing body)
- Certification Body TÜV Austria
- Association Accessible Media
- myAbility Social Enterprise GmbH
- Johannes-Kepler-University (JKU in Linz)
- Competence Network Information Technology to Support the Integration of People with Disabilities (KI-I)
- Specialised digital agencies:
WACA Advisory Board: from left to right: Maria Putzhuber, Franz Pühretmair, Wolfgang Leitner, Michael Stenitzer, Michael Aumann, Wolfram Huber, Werner Rosenberger, Klaus Miesenberger, Klaus Höckner, Martin Weber and Reinhard Koutny
Other members (not in the picture): Edith Vosta and Jo Spelbrink, and associate member Alexander Zeppelzauer
Certification Body
The WACA Advisory Board was able to win an international player as its new partner for the WACA certification. Since May 2020, TÜV Austria serves as new certification body. This change was necessary to be able to offer the WACA certification system also abroad. Furthermore, this put WACA on a sustainable and sound footing. From the development of the certificate until May 2020, the Austrian Computer Society (OCG), a non-profit association for the promotion of informatics and ICT (information and communication technology), acted as certification body for the WACA certificate.
TÜV TRUST IT TÜV AUSTIRA GmbH, part of the TÜV Austria Group, has been a leading expert for information security as well as testing and certification services for many years. The neutral, objective and independent partner has offices in Vienna and Cologne. It stands for security and quality as its services are based on recognised standards and proven methods. TÜV TRUST IT is a member of standardisation committees, but also develops and publishes its own standards.
Auditors
We employ specialised auditors to assess the WCAG on your website. Our auditors are appointed and selected by the WACA Advisory Board. They must possess demonstrated experience and expertise, and have successfully completed a specific qualification programme (such as “Certified WebAccessibility Expert” of the Austrian Economic Chambers WKO). As active members of the WACA methodology group, the auditing experts continuously deal with the topic of web accessibility and exchange information with each other. Each auditor has to undergo further training on the topic and renew their qualification after a certain period of time. The auditing team is made up almost equally of female and male experts.
The WACA Advisory Board appoints an independent auditor for each audit. This guarantees maximum objectivity and transparency for the entire certification process.