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Thread: How to hire for web accessibility specialist
Number of posts in this thread: 6 (In chronological order)
From: Reinhard Stebner
Date: Thu, Nov 01 2018 5:56AM
Subject: How to hire for web accessibility specialist
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I am looking for a method to help screen candidates. Is there any good resources on the web that i can use to test individuals for web accessibility skill sets? I am getting a lot of people applying, but i am unsure if these individuals truly know web accessibility
From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Thu, Nov 01 2018 7:00AM
Subject: Re: How to hire for web accessibility specialist
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The IAAP Web Accessiblity Specialist credential may be useful - but there are many who have not yet taken the exam or some that may not have even heard of it. The exam has a body of knowledge<https://www.accessibilityassociation.org/wascertification> they have determined to be relevant that may be of interest.
Jonathan
Jonathan Avila, CPWA
Chief Accessibility Officer
Level Access
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703.637.8957 office
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From: Terzian, Sharon
Date: Thu, Nov 01 2018 7:30AM
Subject: Re: How to hire for web accessibility specialist
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I teach web design at the college and am trying to instill accessibility (even though my textbook mentions it, it doesn't go to far with it) in my students. I'd say let them look at some code or pages and write you a short summary on what is right and what is wrong. So, very easy are things like color selections, alt and title tags, and even if they know enough to run it through the W3C checker. I'm really the only one here (in our state) that does this, you either know it or you don't. See if they know how to use JAWS (we have a trial version). If they don't even know just the basics, move on.
Sharon Terzian
Webmistress/Sherlock Center
Adjunct Professor/CIS/School of Business
Rhode Island College
www.sherlockcenter.org
From: Karlen Communications
Date: Thu, Nov 01 2018 7:40AM
Subject: Re: How to hire for web accessibility specialist
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Here in Ontario Canada, we have an Accessible Media Production Certificate
Program at Mohawk College in Hamilton Ontario. I'm in the process of sending
out information on it and have included information on it in this post as
something to look for in the future as we graduate more students with these
skills. January will be our second cohort.
I know that Telus, a Canadian cell/ISP provider now requires web developers
to demonstrate their skill in accessible web design and you might find
something on their website. They did a presentation on this at the
University of Guelph Accessibility Conference two years ago.
https://www.telus.com/en/ and
https://opened.uoguelph.ca/student-resources/Accessibility-Conference which
is the page for this year's conference (in case anyone wants to bookmark it
for next year). I'm not sure if past presentations are available, but you
might be able to contact either Telus or the conference organizers for the
Tellus presentation.
Accessible Media Production Certificate Mohawk College Hamilton Ontario
If you live in the Hamilton Ontario Canada area and want to earn a
certificate in accessible media production, the new cohort begins in
January! You'll learn about the Accessibility for Ontarians with
Disabilities Act, Types of disability, types of adaptive technology, how to
create captioned video, accessible Word, PowerPoint and PDF documents/PDF
forms and participate in a Capstone project bringing all your knowledge
together.
This is a great professional development opportunity or a great starting
point for creating your own business in the field of accessible digital
content.
Courses are taught by leaders in the field of accessible digital content
including Rob Harvie (Captioned Video), Karen McCall (Accessible Word,
PowerPoint and PDF), Web Accessibility (Sandi Gauder), Adam Spencer
(Entrepreneurship), Mary Neilans (Inclusive Writing), Jennifer Curry Jahnke
(Accessibility Legislation) and Lianne Fisher (Diversity Perspectives).
Learn more at
https://www.mohawkcollege.ca/programs/graduate-studies/accessible-media-prod
uction-390
Cheers, Karen
From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Thu, Nov 01 2018 9:35AM
Subject: Re: How to hire for web accessibility specialist
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A quick first step is to check whether their application contains the
word 'accessibility'.
Believe it or not, when I posted for a position I received over 20
applications, more than half of them listed a lot of qualifications
but did not mention the word "accessibility" at all. I instantly threw
them out.
I think it is a reasonable first step to screening applicants (I
glanced at everything I got, but noted that for future I could save
myself a lot of work by just doing a word search for "accessibility").
In your job description indicate you want someone with accessibility
background, maybe specify 1 to 3 or 3 to 5 years or whatever.
I think you could require IAAP certification (either CPACC or WAS or
both depending on the type of position you are posting). IAAP as over
500 people with this certification by now (you can see the list on
their website). If that takes your application from too many to 0 you
may have to relax and say that candidae should be familiar with the
IAAP certification body of knowledge for the topic.
I created a pretty detailed test for my candidates that I sprung on
the ones who made it for an onsite interview, try to mix labeling,
images, language and a couple of ARIA things to gauge their knowledge.
-B
On 11/1/18, Karlen Communications < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Here in Ontario Canada, we have an Accessible Media Production Certificate
> Program at Mohawk College in Hamilton Ontario. I'm in the process of
> sending
> out information on it and have included information on it in this post as
> something to look for in the future as we graduate more students with these
> skills. January will be our second cohort.
>
> I know that Telus, a Canadian cell/ISP provider now requires web developers
> to demonstrate their skill in accessible web design and you might find
> something on their website. They did a presentation on this at the
> University of Guelph Accessibility Conference two years ago.
> https://www.telus.com/en/ and
> https://opened.uoguelph.ca/student-resources/Accessibility-Conference which
> is the page for this year's conference (in case anyone wants to bookmark it
> for next year). I'm not sure if past presentations are available, but you
> might be able to contact either Telus or the conference organizers for the
> Tellus presentation.
>
> Accessible Media Production Certificate Mohawk College Hamilton Ontario
>
> If you live in the Hamilton Ontario Canada area and want to earn a
> certificate in accessible media production, the new cohort begins in
> January! You'll learn about the Accessibility for Ontarians with
> Disabilities Act, Types of disability, types of adaptive technology, how to
> create captioned video, accessible Word, PowerPoint and PDF documents/PDF
> forms and participate in a Capstone project bringing all your knowledge
> together.
>
> This is a great professional development opportunity or a great starting
> point for creating your own business in the field of accessible digital
> content.
>
> Courses are taught by leaders in the field of accessible digital content
> including Rob Harvie (Captioned Video), Karen McCall (Accessible Word,
> PowerPoint and PDF), Web Accessibility (Sandi Gauder), Adam Spencer
> (Entrepreneurship), Mary Neilans (Inclusive Writing), Jennifer Curry Jahnke
> (Accessibility Legislation) and Lianne Fisher (Diversity Perspectives).
>
> Learn more at
> https://www.mohawkcollege.ca/programs/graduate-studies/accessible-media-prod
> uction-390
>
> Cheers, Karen
>
>
From: Karlen Communications
Date: Thu, Nov 01 2018 10:08AM
Subject: Re: How to hire for web accessibility specialist
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I would add that if their resumes themselves were not constructed to be
accessible, this would be a red flag.
Cheers, Karen