ACCESSIBLE & INCLUSIVE DESIGN

Overview

Helix Opportunity’s™ design process transcends mere “access” or “inclusion” to create unique and meaningful experiences that all customers can share in together. We have developed a unique approach called Common Sense Design which is based on the fact that every human being is unique, with a distinctive set of sensory and functional strengths, weaknesses, and preferences. We take this into account in every design decision, from the floor layout of a classroom to the color palette of a mobile application.

Common Sense Design

The process begins with defining a Provocative Purpose (the meaningful experience) and then designing ways to deliver that experience to as many human senses as possible: sight, sound, touch, smell and even taste when possible. This creates a powerful connection among customers with your product, environment, or service, as well as with each other. This design approach also creates stronger memories due to the direct involvement of the sensory processing regions of the brain in creating and storing emotional memories.

Common Sense Design prioritizes the goal of providing every individual with the ability to engage using whatever combination of senses and abilities they prefer. We have helped brands, products, and environments fully engage all people, including people with disabilities, in a seamless and fully shared collective experience for over 15 years.

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APPRENTICESHIP

Helix Opportunity developed the 1st digital accessibility Registered Apprenticeship Program in the United States. Our digital accessibility Registered Apprenticeship Program is unique in that it is the only formal, structured, and nationally recognized education and training program, in digital accessibility, available that combines the two most common forms of career and occupational learning: classroom instruction with on-the-job training, acting as a global talent pipeline to increase the availability of qualified digital accessibility professionals for any company in the world to hire. What we mean is that, traditionally, companies utilize Registered Apprenticeship Programs for internal recruiting needs, but our program is designed to skill up qualified digital accessibility professionals, with disabilities, and staff them out at employer-partners to fulfill their digital accessibility needs, and ultimately lower the cost of developing, remediating, and maintaining, accessible products, environments, and services.

Digital accessibility Apprentices not only learn digital accessibility skills in the classroom, but their learning is expanded to include hands-on, paid, on-the-job training. Apprentices learn and practice all phases of the digital accessibility occupation in real-world applications. Having a digital accessibility Registered Apprenticeship Program means that the United States Department of Labor has approved and validated that our digital accessibility apprenticeship curriculum meets industry-vetted standards.

Digital Accessibility Developer Apprenticeship

BECOME AN EMPLOYER PARTNER and make digital accessibility a part of the digital transformation of your company, organization, or economy, while providing meaningful employment opportunities to local professionals with disabilities. Employer partners benefit from highly trained accessibility professionals with developer qualifications, at a minimal cost. Deliver on your committment to digital accessibility by leveraging real accessibility professionals with disabilities in your Software Development Life Cycle. Please contact Helix Opportunity™ at info@helixopp.com to learn more about how your organization can participate.

This Digital Accessibility Developer Apprenticeship Program has been reviewed, and approved by the U.S Department of Labor. It is recognized as an industry-driven, high-quality career pathway where employers can develop and prepare their future workforce, and individuals with disabilities can obtain paid work experience, receive progressive wage increases, classroom instruction, and a portable, nationally-recognized credential.

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP WITH INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ACCESSIBILITY PROFESSIONALS

The IAAP recognizes that Helix Opportunity’s Digital Accessibility Developer Registered Apprenticeship Program strategically aligns with the mission, objectives, and goals of the International Association of Accessibility Professionals, and it’s membership. We have entered into a strategic collaboration in a unified approach to developing and delivering, vocational education and training, in digital accessibility career fields that lead to meaningful employment opportunities in the digital accessibility industry.

Helix Opportunity and the IAAP are working together, through this Digital Accessibility Developer Registered Apprenticeship Program, to create a robust, industry-leading academic ecosystem for professional development in digital accessibility careers that will lead to employment opportunities for persons with disabilities.The IAAP and Helix Opportunity share a common vision to drive disability inclusion through accessible and inclusive design best practices and to use ICT to transform every aspect of life for individuals with disabilities and foster ICT-enabled social and economic development. The synergies between us are demonstrated by our shared objectives and beliefs in:

1. Organizational Development, to develop resources and programs by which organizations, corporations, and government entities can learn and grow their accessibility strategies to increase overall access and opportunities for persons with disabilities;

2. Individual Professional Development, to develop and implement activities, including a certification program, that enables professionals working in accessibility and those interested in knowing more about accessibility to influence and implement accessibility within any organization;

3. Community Development, to develop a program to make connections amongst the broader accessibility community and beyond to support existing efforts and growing the numbers within the profession.

  • Employer-Partner Benefits
    Cost-effective
    Accessibility impact at scale
    Accessibility professionals with disabilities
    Contingent labor

  • Apprenticeship Program Highlights
    U.S. Department of Labor Registered, and approved program
    242 hours of classroom training
    International Association of Accessibility Professionals approved curriculum
    California Office of Education approved curriculum
    Certification in Accessibility Core Competencies

  • Locations
    United States and its territories
    Latin America and Caribbean
    Europe Asia-Pacific
    Remote

  • Vocational Rehabilitation Services
    On Job Training
    Job Coaching
    Equipment
    software
    Other services, as needed

Become An Employer-Partner

Consulting

Brand Development

Branding is your expression of the essential truth or value of your organization, products, and services. There are fundamental differences in how to attract, invite, welcome, and meaningfully engage all customers, especially customers with disabilities. Many brands have difficulty achieving this feat with equity. Simple errors or oversights can be significant obstacles, either practical or emotional, for people with disabilities.

Helix Opportunity specializes in meaningfully engaging and emotionally connecting with consumers with disabilities, without unintentionally stigmatizing them as deviant from the norm. Our approach resonates with consumers with disabilities as buyers, securing loyalty that transforms customers into brand advocates and evangelists.

Design of Physical/Virtual Products & Environments

As applied to the design of physical spaces, the goal of Common Sense Design is to enhance and unify the experience for every person who interacts with the location. Removing barriers is essential but far from sufficient. Everything from traffic patterns to the auditory environment and even the ambient odor has an impact and can be tuned to optimize results. For digital environments and products, we utilize cutting-edge technologies to harness the brain’s neuroplasticity through touch points that deliver bursts of neurotransmitters, such as anandamide, dopamine, endorphins, oxytocin, and serotonin. This neuropsychological design technique can alleviate stress, increase happiness, reduce depression, enhance motivation and focus, increase cognition, facilitate diverse bonding, stave off destructive addiction behaviors, mitigate the onset of PTSD and psychosis episodes, and even reduce sexual harassment. Neuropsychological design techniques are the most powerful influencer of human behavior. Our design methodology focuses on providing unique and meaningful experiences that everyone can share in together, without being unintentionally stigmatized by their differences (functional ability, age, language, culture, background, or perspective).

Design of Business Strategies & Processes

A collaborative, productive, and innovative work environment values the strengths of each person and builds on successes to create a culture where individuals of all backgrounds, cultures, perspectives and functional abilities work better together. By applying Common Sense Design principles to the development of business strategies and processes, organizations are able to achieve Harmony at Work. This brings substantial operational efficiencies, greater employee satisfaction, and the creative nimbleness that leads to true market leadership.

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TRAINING

Helix Opportunity supports your digital transformation efforts by training professionals to develop, audit, monitor, and remediate products, processes, services, and environments, to ensure that they are accessible to, and inclusive of, all internal and external customer needs.

We leverage our work with the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative, International Telecommunication Union, Global Initiative for Inclusive Information Communication Technology, and International Association of Accessibility Professionals to develop. And deliver, industry leading training related to digital accessibility and inclusive design.

All of our training is offered through Helix Opportunity Institute, a division of Helix Opportunity LLC. Please visit our Custom developed, accessible, and inclusive, online learning management system at helixopp.institute to create a free account, browse our complimentary offerings, and sign up for paid learning content. Helixopp.institute is not yet optimized for smartphone visual interfaces.

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Accessibility Core Competencies

Our Certified Professionals in Accessibility Core Competencies Training consists of 100 hours of instructor-led, online, training covering 3 main course topics: Disabilities, Challenges and Assistive Technologies, Digital Accessibility Standards Laws and Management Strategies, as well as Accessible and Universal Design.

This training prepares you for the International Association of Accessibility Professionals Certified Professionals in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) exam. More course details can be found below.

  • This curriculum is U.S. Department of Labor approved based on industry standards.

    US Department of Labor Seal
  • The California Office of Education approved this curriculum meets the requirements of Higher Learning at the University level.

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  • This Program is approved for HR (General) re-certification credit hours toward aPHR™, aPHRi™, PHR®, PHRca®, SPHR®, GPHR®, PHRi™ and SPHRi™ re-certification through HR Certification Institute® (HRCI®).


  • his Program is valid for 100 recertification credits for the SHRM Certified Professional (SHRM-CP®) and SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP®) credentials.

  • Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies Curriculum

    Disabilities, Challenges, and Assistive Technologies – 30 Hours

    Lesson 1 Theoretical Models of Disability
    Lesson 2 Disability Demographics and Statistics
    Lesson 3 Categories and Characteristics of Disabilities and Associated Barriers
    Lesson 4 Assistive Technologies and Adaptive Strategies
    Lesson 5 Disability Etiquette

  • Digital Accessibility Standards, Laws and Management Strategies – 40 Hours

    Lesson 1 Disability Rights and Accessibility
    Lesson 2 Legal Framework of Digital Accessibility
    Lesson 3 Management Strategies to Support Accessibility
    Lesson 4: Management Strategies
    Lesson 5: Workflow Strategies

  • Accessible and Universal Design – 30 Hours

    Lesson 1 Overview of Universal Design
    Lesson 2 Universal Design in the physical world
    Lesson 3 Universal Design on the World Wide Web
    Lesson 4 Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

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Web Accessibility Specialist

Our Web Accessibility Specialist Training consists of 100 hours of instructor-led, virtual, training covering 2 main course topics: Creating and Managing Accessible Web Content, as well as Programming for Web Applications.

This training prepares you for the International Association of Accessibility Professionals Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS) exam. More course details can be found below.

  • This curriculum is U.S. Department of Labor approved based on
    industry standards.

    US Department of Labor Seal
  • The California Office of Education approved this curriculum meets the requirements of Higher Learning at the University level.

    Outlook-zccytfqq

  • This Program is approved for HR (General) re-certification credit hours toward aPHR™, aPHRi™, PHR®, PHRca®, SPHR®, GPHR®, PHRi™ and SPHRi™ re-certification through HR Certification Institute® (HRCI®).


  • his Program is valid for 100 recertification credits for the SHRM Certified Professional (SHRM-CP®) and SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP®) credentials.

  • Web Accessibility Specialist Curriculum

    Creating and Managing Accessible Web Content – 50 Hours
    Lesson 1: Overview of Web Accessibility Issues
    Lesson 2: Writing Accessible Content
    Lesson 3: Designing Accessible Content
    Lesson 4: Creating accessible multimedia
    Lesson 5: Testing for accessible content
    Lesson 6: Common Sense Design
    Lesson 7: Content Management System Overview
    Lesson 8: How to publish accessible content using a CMS
    Lesson 9: Factors for selecting a CMS
    Lesson 10: CMS lab
    Lesson 11: Aspects of Social Media
    Lesson 12: How to publish accessible content on social media
    Lesson 13: Social media lab

  • Programming For Web Applications – 50 Hours

    Lesson 1: Web Development Background
    Lesson 2: Web Development Foundations
    Lesson 3: Web Development Lab
    Lesson 4: Accessibility Testing for Developers
    Lesson 5: Advanced topics
    Lesson 6: Web Development Frameworks and Libraries
    Lesson 7: Review

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