Electronic and Information Technology (EIT) Accessibility Coordinator

Overview:

The Law School Admission Council is a nonprofit organization devoted to furthering equality, access, and fairness in law school admission by providing the core products and services that candidates and law schools depend on in the United States and around the world. LSAC promotes quality, access, and equity in law and education worldwide by supporting individuals’ enrollment journeys and providing pre-eminent assessment, data, and technology services.

Summary of Position:

The Coordinator will be a hand’s on leader of LSAC’s efforts to provide expertise, technical direction, assessment and implementation support as it relates to bringing technologies, products and services into compliance with state and federal technology accessibility requirements, guidelines and best practices. The Coordinator will develop and implement an organization-wide comprehensive accessibility plan and related policies to include document, digital and website accessibility in addition to assessing assistive technology needs and recommending appropriate systems to ensure access for individuals with disabilities. The Coordinator will lead an accessibility project team and will be the key accessibility subject matter expert (“SME”) in accessibility, assistive technologies, web programming and universal design. The Coordinator will be the SME for all product and service development teams and will not only test, solve, and consult on accessibility issues at all stages of the lifecycle, but will work with the teams to mature this capability, providing employee training and organizational process improvement support. The Coordinator will be the SME for accessibility issues that arise and advise on technical accessible issues with candidates in the Accommodated Testing department and Candidate Services Boundary.

This is a full-time position. Remote work arrangements will be considered for this position.

Responsibilities:

- Functions as LSAC’s chief corporate accessibility lead for all matters involving electronic, digital information, document accessibility for all LSAC products and services provided to members, candidates and customers
- Provides guidance and training, and is the accessibility liaison to LSAC departments where EIT is developed, procured, or supported
- Recommends best practices for EIT accessibility for new and existing technologies, including software, hardware, web-based applications, and documents
- Recommends and advises on EIT accessibility criteria for integration into development and testing processes, procedures, resource requirements, and schedules
- Identifies and recommends tools for developing and testing EIT accessibility
- Develop IT Accessibility Goals and Strategies Plan and works to keep these plans aligned with LSAC initiatives and efforts
- IT Accessibility Communications Plan to increase organization-wide awareness and promote the goals of LSAC IT Accessibility
- Educational programs that clarify IT Accessibility requirements, priorities, and recommendations to raise the level of accessibility
- LSAC-specific EIT plans for maintaining and monitoring compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, applicable Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1,
Level AA and higher), relevant copyright regulations, and other applicable regulations, as appropriate, to ensure compliance in the application of and use of technology for
LSAC programs, services and activities
- Advises and collaborates with the CIO/IT Directors and the Sr. VP for Legal and Corporate Affairs (“General Counsel”) on policy development, administration, programming, and assessment with regard to IT Accessibility
- Regularly reports EIT accessibility status, progress, and other relevant information to the CIO, IT area directors and the General Counsel
- Works closely and collaboratively with key vendors of EIT
- Conducts applicable and current WCAG standards for website/app, mobile web, and native mobile testing and analysis and consult with teams working to make accessible member, customer and candidate-facing applications
- Tests and analyzes existing web and mobile applications for accessibility issues and work with developers and designers to define and implement solutions
- Audits and remediates websites and applications
- Works with Product Managers to help ensure requirements and stories fully represent users with disabilities
- Works with designers and developers to ensure designs and pre-development technical decisions will produce accessible products
- Works with Solution Analysts to ensure they are following accessibility test plans and identifying all compliance issues
- Works with the CIO and General Counsel to define and implement a plan to grow the organization’s accessibility maturity over time
- Ensures that new software is evaluated, and necessary accommodations and/or remediation efforts are negotiated prior to purchase
- Ensures that existing software is evaluated in a timely manner based on risk, and that proper accommodation and/or remediation efforts are planned and carried through
- Consults with LSAC departments and vendors to evaluate their products and recommend designs and development strategies to improve the accessibility of their product
- Ensures an appropriate audit trail is maintained for all evaluations, and that accommodation/remediation efforts are tracked and reporte
- Builds and supports accessibility knowledge base and company-wide accessibility requirements
- Builds and supports a corporate accessibility website with accessibility web resources for internal and external audiences
- Conducts in-person and virtual trainings; produces content and resources for trainings, to include web and document accessibility
- Serves as coordinator for all requests for materials in alternative format and collaborate internally and externally with vendors to fulfill requests for materials in alternative format
- Conducts assistive technology evaluations and makes recommendations for assistive hardware and software
- Serves as LSAC’s accessibility expert to promote accessibility and especially for those individuals with disabilities
- Participates in development, implementation, and maintenance of policies, objectives, short- and long-range planning; collaborates with other LSAC staff in strategic planning and development and implementation of programmatic and other organization initiatives
- Outreach to accessibility groups to build and sustain relationships critical to LSAC as leader in this area
- Assumes additional responsibilities and performs special projects as needed or as assigned.

Qualifications:

- Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, User Experience, Human Computer Interaction, or a related field, from an accredited institution of higher education, or equivalent experience required
- Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, User Experience, Human Computer Interaction, or a related field, from an accredited institution of higher education preferred
- IAAP WAS Certification preferred
- Experience building and managing a company-wide accessibility initiative preferred
- Strong Subject Matter Expertise in WCAG standards, starting with 2.0/2.1, and other accessibility laws and standards as they evolve –to make LSAC’s website, information, documents and services accessible to individuals with disabilities
- Demonstrable experience helping organizations ensure that strong, sustained accessibility is built into their structure, process, culture, and products
- Experience in analyzing websites, mobile applications, native apps and documents for accessibility issues and providing methods to correct accessibility defects
- Knowledge of computer-based and distance education technology
- Knowledge of accessibility requirements including, but not limited to, federal laws governing the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended
- Knowledge of assistive technology hardware and software computing systems
- Experience with accessibility audit and quality assurance tools and processes
- Experience using common Accessibility testing tools as well as Screen Readers such as JAWS, NVDA, Talkback & Voiceover
- Experience in development of HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and Responsive development
- Experience with web and native mobile accessibility
- Experience working with individuals with disabilities in identification of Assistive Technology that provide access to environmental barriers
- Passion for supporting individuals with disabilities and for making websites, applications, information and documents accessible to all users
- Thorough, methodical, and creative with extreme attention to detail
- Expert at time management as well as working and finding answers to questions independently
- Extremely strong verbal and written communication skills, problem solving skills, customer service and interpersonal skills, must be able to communicate clearly, be easily understood, and build rapport with others easily
- Demonstrated ability to think critically and creatively, have a high standard of integrity, and be motivated to incorporate best practices into the organizational culture
- Exhibit a thorough knowledge of policies, procedures, and outside regulations pertaining to the position
- Possess a working knowledge of operational and fiscal analysis techniques
- Make presentations in front of various group sizes
- Take initiative and independently plan, organize, coordinate and perform work in various situations where numerous and diverse demands are involved
- Anticipate, investigate, and analyze problems and address them proactively
- Work with a variety of constituencies and be willing to contribute to a team effort
- Collect, organize, analyze and present information in a meaningful manner
- Collaborate and be effective working with diverse populations
- Understanding of UX and the design techniques and principals involved in the production of conceptual prototypes and wireframes
- Ability to work with diverse and distributed team in fast paced environment with quick iterative cycles
- Thrives in a work environment that requires strong independent problem-solving skills, self- direction, and innovative thinking coupled with an aptitude and affinity for team collaboration and open communication
- Highly analytical as well as highly creative, and consistently demonstrates superb design, writing and presentation skills
- Possess leadership acumen and ability to supervise work and other employees
- Ability to organize and lead meaningful meetings, maintain meeting minutes, action items and documentation
- Foster collaboration both inside and outside the team, evangelizes and promotes inclusive experiences within the company, and ability to juggle several high-level projects while delivering A- level work on all of them
- Strong passion to support and understand the challenges of individuals with disabilities

LSAC actively seeks to foster greater levels of diversity in our workforce and in our pipeline of future leaders. We are committed to attract and retain candidates who have a passion for their work and encourage all qualified individuals, including minorities, women, LGBTQ, and individuals with disabilities, to apply. LSAC is an Equal Opportunity Employer.