Rules on applying for membership

Accredited membership (Individuals only)

The association requires evidence of relevant qualifications and significant experience, continuing professional development training, and skills and knowledge pertaining to access to premises, before accepting an Applicant for accredited membership.

Applicants for this class are required to have spent three years as an associate member of ACAA and be able to demonstrate active participation in the association’s CPD program prior to applying for accredited membership. Refer below to the Accreditation Checklist for more details.

Only in extraordinary circumstances will consideration be given to an Applicant who is not already an ACAA Associate member.

Accredited membership applicants must:

• have both a Proposer and Seconder
  [each of whom must hold  ACAA Accredited membership]

• Guidelines for Proposers and Seconders for applications for ACAA Membership

• nominate a minimum of three Referees
  [A referee is a person who can substantiate the applicants work experience in access, and vouch for their good character and proficiency. A suitable referee is a client, work colleague or mentor who can verify an applicant's professional and personal attributes that support their ability to operate effectively as an access consultant. Referees for Accredited Membership must include at least two clients of the applicant. Referees can also include the Proposer or Seconder if required.
  The Association will always contact an Applicant's Referees and the Applicant’s Proposer or Seconder. An employee or family member cannot be accepted as a nominated Referee.]
• participate in the Association’s Continuing Professional Development Program throughout the associate membership period.
  Demonstrated by attaining a minimum 30 CPD points per year for the (minimum) three years that the person holds associate membership.
  [In order to maintain ongoing accredited membership class, 20 CPD points per year is required.]
• provide evidence that they have been an ACAA Associate member for duration of at least 3 years.
  
• successfully complete an Accreditation Membership Test
  [ACAA Associate members can undertake the test at any time prior to applying for upgrade to Accredited membership. However, it should be noted that Accredited membership will not be activated until the qualifying period for Accredited membership has been met, even if the Accreditation Membership Test has been successfully taken. For more details, please see our Accreditation Test Information Section
• Provide a detailed Curriculum Vitae (CV) that demonstrates the applicants experience in delivering access consulting services.
• Provide three samples of Access Reports
  The reports must demonstrate a variety of projects, report styles and technical skills at different stages of the design process.
  

  [Reports can have any confidential client details removed or blanked out. All information provide is kept confidential to the ACAA Membership Committee only]

• Applicants are required to attend a panel interview (via Zoom or other virtual platform – likely 15-30 minutes) with representatives or nominated representatives of the ACAA Membership Committee.

  The intention of the interview is to ascertain that the information contained within the report submitted is the applicant’s own work and that their knowledge and skills are commensurate with those demonstrated throughout the reports.

  An interview process is standard in many other organisations for this level of membership and is intended as a friendly chat to enable the membership committee to understand how the applicant will conduct themselves in the industry in a range of scenarios. It also gives the committee the opportunity to ask any questions relating to the application and vice versa – the applicant can also ask questions about ACAA generally.

Associate membership (Individuals only)

Associate membership Applicants must:

• be able to demonstrate that they are engaged in some way in access consulting
• Have successfully completed the nationally recognised qualification of Certificate IV or Diploma in Access Consulting.
• Have a qualification in a related field – for example architecture, building design, interior design, landscape design, occupational therapy, construction management, town planning, building surveying or the like
  [If the applicant does not have the required qualification in a related field or are relying on lived experience, they may apply for affiliate membership and participate in the ACAA mentoring program for a minimum period of two (2) years in lieu of a qualification prior to applying for ACAA Associate level membership.]

• Provide a minimum of three Referees.
  [A referee is a person who can substantiate the applicants work experience in access and vouch for their good character and proficiency. A suitable referee is a client, work colleague who can verify an applicant's professional and personal attributes that support their ability to operate effectively as an access consultant. An Applicant’s employee or family member cannot be accepted as a nominated Referee.]

• Provide a detailed Curriculum Vitae (CV) that outlines experience in access consulting. 

• Provide two samples of access reports to demonstrate your work experience undertaken in Australia over the last 1-2 years. Preferably, the report shall be prepared under the supervision of an ACAA accredited member.
  [Reports must be authored by the applicant, must not be a re-submission of an report/assignment undertaken for any training or training course, and can have any confidential client details removed, or blanked out. All information provided is kept confidential to the ACAA Membership Committee only. To facilitate the application process consider providing two to three reports that demonstrate work variety/complexity]

Affiliate membership (Individuals only)

Affiliate membership applicants must:

• have an interest in access
• provide a statement describing the nature of their interest in access

For this class of membership Referees are not required.
For this class of membership, participation in the ACAA Continuous Professional Development Program is not required but certainly welcomed.

Student membership (Individuals only)

Student membership applicants must:

• have an interest in access
• provide a statement describing the nature of their interest in access
• provide proof of full time status as a student

For this class of membership Referees are not required. For this class of membership, participation in the ACAA Continuous Professional Development Program is not required but certainly welcomed.

Retired membership (Individuals only)

• Retired membership applicants must have retired from active practice in access consulting.

Corporate sponsor membership (Organisations only)

From 1st July 2018, Corporate membership has been reclassified as Supporters. Corporate member is now presented as the ACAA Corporate Sponsor category

The object of this change in policy is to clearly establish the intent of corporate sponsorship as supporters of ACAA and prohibits companies that provide Access Consultant design and certification services from intentionally or unintentionally implying ACAA “accreditation” through a corporate membership, e.g. XYZ Certifiers have no ACAA Accredited member employees but use their corporate membership to advertise their services, which implies ACAA membership is all encompassing.

The intent of corporate sponsorship is to have a category that enables companies that sell/manufacture accessibility related products and services to become members to advertise and support ACAA.

Corporate Sponsorship is available to the following two groups:

1. Businesses that provide products and services that are related to the design, construction and maintenance of the built and landscaped environment for use by people with disabilities including older people

2. Business that provide Access Consultancy services shall be eligible only if there is at least one  financial ACAA Accredited member employed full time. Occasional sub-contractors engaged by a business from time to time does not fulfil this requirement.

All corporate sponsors are obligated to support the objectives of ACAA.

For more details of the benefits of our three Corporate Sponsor membership Packages.

ACAA Advertising and Sponsorship Opportunities

[Note: ACAA does not guarantee, support or endorse any product or service provided by a Corporate Sponsor, nor does it warrant any assertions made of products or services. Users of these products and services are recommended to obtain independent information and to perform independent research before using the information acquired from Sponsors. ACAA assumes no liability or responsibility for any inaccurate or incomplete information, nor for any actions taken in reliance thereon.]