There are two questions being discussed here. The answer depends upon what you are going to take for your Associate’s degree in the community college. If you are attending the community college just for general education and the foundation science courses (e.g., calculus, physics, chemistry, humanities, GE liberal arts requirements, etc.), and not engineering courses ABET accreditation of the community college program is not a factor. ABET accredits only engineering programs within a school, not the school itself or its non-engineering or general education program. Many - or most- universities will accept transfer credits from community colleges that are regionally accredited as an institutional whole by the regional accreditation agency serving that particular state (e.g., Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges, Western States Association, etc.), which are the same regional accrediting agencies of the universities in their regions. Most community colleges are regionally accredited (I’ve never seen one that was not, but you should still check).
If you are taking an engineering Associate’s degree in a community college, then ABET accreditation of that CC’s engineering program is important. Many universities will not accept engineering courses from a non-ABET accredited program as transfer equivalents of its own courses. Many, but not all, community colleges have ABET accredited Associate level engineering programs. Be sure to check with the CC as to its ABET accreditation status for the particular engineering program in which you are interested.
In both cases, be sure to verify with the 4-year school(s) to which you plan to transfer that they will accept the Associate degree courses from the CC as transfer equivalents. In the case of public universities, many have transfer or articulation agreements with community colleges in their state that guarantee transfer of the 60 credits of an engineering associate’s degree. Some private universities may also have articulation agreements, but that is less common than with public universities. That is another thing to check, which schools have articulation agreements. The agreement usually mandates that you achieve a certain minimum GPA and grades in the core science and engineering courses in the CC for the courses to transfer.
If you are planning to start in a CC for engineering, I strongly recommend you start in the engineering program of the CC, not in a general education or a non-engineering associate’s program. That will provide the most transfer credit opportunity, and you will satisfy the fundamental freshman and sophomore science and engineering coursework of the four year school immediately starting as a junior in the four year school.
Another poster stated that universities will not accept vocational associate’s degrees as transfer equivalents. This is true in general. The CC in which I used to teach has a Engineering Science program which awards an Associate of Science (A.S.) degree which is ABET accredited. It also has an Engineering Technology program and an electronics and manufacturing technology program offering an Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S.) degree. The four year schools with which the CC has articulation agreements for the engineering program specifically state that the A.S. degree in Engineering Science is the only one that is acceptable for transfer to the Engineering program.
To reiterate, it is very important to check with the prospective four year school as to what courses they will accept as transfer from the CC you plan to attend. If there is no articulation agreement, the decision to transfer credits is usually made on a case by case basis by the four year school.