Senior Accessibility Specialist

East Midlands (England), East of England, London (region), North East England, North West England, Scotland, South East England, South West England, Wales, West Midlands (England), Yorkshire and the Humber
About the job
Job summary
This position is based Nationally
Job description

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.

Senior Accessibility Specialist

Location: National*

Closing Date: 18th November

Interviews: Expected 29th-30th November

Grade: 7

(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)

Salary: London: £58,847 - £66,670 which may include an allowance of up to £4,828 National: £54,358 - £61,585 which may include an allowance of up to £2,517

Working pattern: full-time, part-time, flexible working

Contract Type: Permanent

Vacancy number: 81128

*We are currently offering hybrid working which includes 2 days per week in your local office. Office locations can be found HERE

The Role

We’re recruiting for a Senior Accessibility Specialist here at Justice Digital, to be part of our warm and collaborative Central Digital Accessibility team.

The aim of the Digital Accessibility team is to enable the various parts of the UK justice system to be used to people with disabilities and access needs. To achieve this, we support digital teams in creating accessible digital products and services.

MoJ is one of the largest government departments. It employs 90,000+ people, and we also have many services for the general public. We support Digital teams in the Legal Aid Agency, Criminal Injuries and Compensation Authority, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, Office of the Public Guardian, and HQ.

To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital please take a look at our blog and our Digital and Technology strategy 2025

Key Responsibilities:

As a Senior Accessibility Specialist, you will be supporting the Digital Accessibility team in a variety of tasks across the organisation.

You will lead on building our accessibility bar, creating and deliver accessibility training and working with teams as a consultant to help create accessible services.

The role will also involve line management and mentorship,and engaging with third party suppliers on accessibility remediation.

Specific responsibilities would include:

Leading on re-invigorating the MoJ Accessibility Bars, to help staff test services they’re creating.
Designing and delivering document accessibility training sessions, talks and workshops, across the different MoJ business
Supporting mid-level specialists in delivering consultancy to teams: working collaboratively with teams to help them understand accessibility issues in their services, and support them in approaches for fixing these issues, to meet their legal obligations under the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018 and the Equality Act 2010.
Line management of mid-level specialists and mentorship of people interested in the accessibility profession.
Engaging with third party suppliers to advocate for any required accessibility fixes.
Supporting and contributing to the accessibility communities of practise within the organisation and across government.
IAAP ADS, CPACC or WAS
Inputting into our team’s strategy
Working with Microsoft tooling, like Sway and Power BI

If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!

Benefits

37 hours per week and flexible working options including working from home, working part-time, job sharing, or working compressed hours.
We are committed to nurturing our staff and provide lots of training and development opportunities with learning platforms such as: Linux Academy, O’Reilly, Pluralsight, Microsoft Learning, Civil Service Learning, GDS Academy,
10% dedicated time to learning and development with a budget of £1000 a year per person
Generous civil service pension based on defined benefit scheme, with employer contributions of 26-30% depending on
25 days leave (plus bank holidays) and 1 privilege day usually taken around the Kings’ birthday. 5 additional days of leave once you have reached 5 years of service.
Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!
Wellbeing support including access to the Calm
Nurturing professional and interpersonal networks including those for Careers & Childcare, Gender Equality, PROUD and SPIRIT
Bike loans up to £2500 and secure bike parking (subject to availability and location)
Season ticket loans, childcare vouchers and eye-care vouchers.
5 days volunteering paid leave.
Free membership to BCS, the Chartered Institute for
Some offices may have a subsidised onsite

Person Specification

Essential

You would ideally be able to demonstrate knowledge and/or experience in:

Creating and presenting accessibility training materials and talks for a variety of audiences
Testing and remediating document formats, including Word and PDFs
Conducting informal, collaborative accessibility reviews in real-time, with multi-disciplinary teams
good understanding of UK accessibility legislation

Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for BPSS clearance

We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate on the basis of culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor.

Our values are Purpose, Humanity Openness and Together. Find out more here about how we celebrate diversity and an inclusive culture in our workplace.
Person specification
Please refer to Job Description
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £54,358, Ministry of Justice contributes £15,165 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Access to learning and development
A working environment that supports a range of flexible working options to enhance your work life balance
A working culture which encourages inclusion and diversity
A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
Annual Leave
Public Holidays
Season Ticket Advance



For more information about the recruitment process, benefits and allowances and answers to general queries, please click the below link which will direct you to our Candidate Information Page.

Link: https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ
Things you need to know
Selection process details

How to Apply

Candidates must submit CV+ Statement of suitability (max 500 words) which describes how you meet the requirements set out in the Person Specification above.

In Justice Digital, we recruit using a combination of the Digital, Data and Technology Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We will assess your Experience, Technical Skills and the following Behaviours during the assessment process:

Communicating and Influencing
Working Together
Developing Self and others

Your application will be reviewed against the Person Specification above by a diverse panel.

Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a 1-hour panel interview held via video conference.

Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on will be conducted prior to the sift.

Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for, but demonstrated the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and potentially offer you the position without the need for a further application.

A reserve list may be held for a period of up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.

Terms & Conditions

Please review our Terms & Conditions which set out the way we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact recruitment@digital.justice.gov.uk


Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

UK nationals
nationals of the Republic of Ireland
nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
Apply and further information
The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :

Name : SSCL Recruitment Enquiries Team
Email : Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com
Telephone : 0845 241 5359

Recruitment team

Email : Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com

Further information
Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. I you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles and would like to raise this, please contact SSCL (Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com) in the first instance. If the role has been advertised externally (outside of the Civil Service) and you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/civil-service-recruitment/complaints/