Accessibility Lead

Accessibility Lead

We are looking for an experienced accessibility practitioner to lead our accessibility service and further develop our already market-leading practice.
What you would do:

The primary aim of this Edinburgh-based role is to deliver value to our extensive client list through the provision of accessibility services, including testing, training, awareness raising and embedding inclusive design thinking.

You will take ownership of the accessibility services with User Vision including delivery to clients and identifying opportunities to improve and expand our portfolio for the benefit of our clients and their end users.

You will also be responsible for managing other, more junior, consultants; managing accessibility projects that they are involved in, and building their knowledge and skills. Although line management responsibility is not expected from day one, this is likely to be required in time.

This dynamic role requires that you are comfortable working as part of a team or individually, as well as interacting with clients from day one to understand their requirements, manage projects and deliver results.

You will also have awareness, appreciation, and ideally experience, in the wider area of User Experience. Although your role will be primarily focused on accessibility, you will be working alongside UX consultants day to day, and will very often be working as part of wider UX projects for clients.

Some of your day to day activities will include (but certainly not limited to):

Research: Helping clients understand their users’ needs and behaviour through empirical research, particularly how these needs inform and influence inclusive design. This could be anything from conducting interviews, running focus groups, or directly observing user behaviour. These insights are carefully analysed and could be delivered as personas, user journeys or experience maps to help form the basis for inclusive design solutions. This insight could include highlighting gaps in their current service which make it more difficult for disabled customers to use services as well as creating new services with accessibility in mind.

Design: Helping clients to develop, visualise and test the accessibility and UX of their products and services. This can include advising them on HTML implementation for accessibility, collaborative design exercises with clients, devising and testing information architectures, and developing different types of prototypes, ranging from simple sketches to fully interactive prototypes. You will advise clients on design implementations that are accessible and steer their developers to write more accessible code. You will be an experienced trainer and deliver training to development teams, testers, designers and to senior management.

Evaluation: Helping clients identify how to improve designs to deliver the best experience. You will deliver this through various methods, including expert reviews, accessibility audits, working with development teams to provide accessibility advice, quantitative methods and usability testing (both remotely and face to face) with disabled and vulnerable users.

Strategy: One of our key considerations is to build accessible solutions from the ground up. This will include advising our clients on their user engagement and user-centred design strategy with the needs of disabled and vulnerable users being at the forefront. This may involve defining strategy or helping to build on strategies that already exist.

You will also contribute to the profile and success of the company through:

Keeping up with developments in our rapidly evolving field, learning from your colleagues and sharing your skills with the team.

Supporting our business growth through nurturing close relationships with our clients, spotting and developing opportunities, and contributing to proposals.

Providing knowledge sharing and mentoring to more junior staff.

Helping to shape and develop the services we offer to our clients.

Contributing to the Accessibility (and UX) community while raising the profile of User Vision, through the creation of articles, networking, and by attending or speaking at conferences.

The role may involve travel within and outside of the UK.
Who we are looking for:

You will have significant skills in development, accessibility and (ideally) user experience and want to move beyond those to learn something new. By working with our team you’ll be able to learn and grow across the full breadth of UX and service design methods.

We want to work with the best so you should have a skill set which you can demonstrate. Our ideal candidate would possess many of the following:

Extensive experience of web accessibility in terms of applying the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, ARIA and HTML5 to create accessible websites and educating others (e.g. designers, developers, management) on accessibility.

Solid understanding of how accessibility needs to be implemented in organisations.

Significant experience researching with disabled and vulnerable people, leading on accessibility projects including auditing websites/apps and performing usability testing with disabled people.

Experience of working with development teams to improve the accessibility of websites and apps and training teams on accessibility.

Significant experience with assistive technologies, including JAWS, NVDA, Zoomtext, VoiceOver (iOS and OSX), TalkBack, Dragon Naturally Speaking and other major assistive technologies.

Passionate about shaping the best possible user experiences, for all users, and a portfolio to demonstrate it.

Qualification in an applicable area (UX, HCI, Human Factors, Design, Accessibility, Psychology, Computer Science or similar).

A track record in one or more of the following (with several years experience):
Developing large websites, including accessibility
Advising on accessibility and delivering accessibility projects
Conducting accessibility focused research\design projects across a range of platforms

A desire and drive to broaden your skillset.

Proactive and highly motivated.

Excellent business acumen, communication (verbal and written) and interpersonal skills.

An eye for good design and an understanding of why.

Solid consultancy skills that will provide our clients with clear deliverables and confidence in our work.

Proven ability to work to tight deadlines and handle multiple projects effectively, working well with others in a team or individually.

A commitment to continued personal and professional development.

Agency/consultancy experience is a plus.

What we offer:

In return, we offer a great working environment:

Based at our townhouse HQ in the heart of Edinburgh’s New Town.

A friendly work environment where you are encouraged to develop your potential, share your experience, and learn from others who are passionate about accessibility and UX.

Supportive, innovative, skilled and enthusiastic colleagues who are fun to work with.

A chance to work with very high-profile brands across a variety of sectors.

Occasional travel across the UK, Europe and beyond.

Excellent user research facilities including three in-house research studios.

Flexible working where possible.

And a compelling package:

A competitive salary and profit-sharing bonus.

Company pension (with employer contributions following the probationary period).

Generous conference, training and personal development budget.

Various optional benefit schemes (e.g. cycle to work, childcare vouchers and multiple benefits with major retailers).

On hand fresh fruit and coffee.

Generous holiday allowance, including your birthday off!

Next steps:

So if you think that we could be a good fit for you and that you could bring something to our team, we would love to hear from you.

We’ll need you to have the right to work in the UK.

No recruitment agencies please.