Accessibility Specialist

One of Esteemed's agency clients is seeking an Accessibility Specialist, for a role on a high-visibility Fed Gov project. Candidates must have/be able to obtain a Public Trust clearance, and be US Citizens.

• Accessibility lead – This person is responsible for ensuring that the program can provide expertise and cross-team coordination to meet Sitewide Experience outcomes and must be capable of the following:
  • Provide design and engineering deliverables that meet or exceed the accessibility requirements established by the VA.gov platform
  • Act as a key advisor to delivery teams and stakeholders to ensure that integrations and non-technical proactive and reactive (remediation) strategies are employed to maintain high compliance with accessibility.

Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with Product, UX and engineering to ensure all product deliverables adhere to VA accessibility standards
•  Review and test new features (at the PR stage) using a combination of axe devTools, manual testing, screen reader testing and voice control to make sure no new issues are introduced into the VA.gov website
• Audit existing Sitewide products within VA.gov for any existing issues to remediate and work with Product to triage and work into the roadmap
• Support all team members in learning and understanding how to run Collab Cycle Foundational accessibility testing
• Create Knowledge base articles and other editor training materials (e.g. presentations) to support editors in creating accessible Drupal content
• Annotate Figma Designs:
  • With accessibility specifics notes regarding markup and functionality
  • With notes regarding spacing, VA Design System components and specific prop usage
• Attend all agile ceremonies to ensure accessibility is considered in all phases of the project life cycle
• Meet with PO and VA accessibility Strategist as needed to review accessibility initiatives.
• Support inclusive research studies within the Sitewide team:
  • Attend every session that includes a participant using assistive technology
  • Be able to provide technical support for the technology being used and Zoom meeting controls 
• Create and run manual functional and regression test plans for Sitewide products
• Assist and provide helpdesk with support when needed with product specific issues and questions
• Create accessibility specific tickets within the GitHub project board that clearly explain the accessibility issue, severity and recommended remediation path.
• Clearly be able to investigate and trace the source of issues to determine ownership (e.g. Sitewide, CMS or VA Design System)

• Have a clear understanding of the accessibility landscape of all Sitewide products and existing backlog
  • Be able to point to existing tickets if issues are mentioned
  • Be able to bring up related tickets during Refinements and Planning to help “kill 2 birds with 1 stone”
  • Be able to assist Product in roadmapping and planning accessibility improvements into sprint work