Digital Accessibility Specialist

Posting Summary

The Office of Access and Services for Individuals with Disabilities (OASID) at Teachers College, Columbia University (TC) is seeking a Digital Accessibility Specialist to ensure digital accessibility at TC and provide support services to faculty, staff, and students so that individuals with disabilities can fully participate in the Teachers College community.

Reporting to the Associate Director of Digital Accessibility and Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services, the Digital Accessibility Specialist is responsible for providing guidance and services to ensure digital access for individuals with disabilities at Teachers College. The role oversees accessibility audits and assessments of TC digital applications and software to ensure that TC’s digital accessibility standards for campus-wide use are met.

The specialist manages all technology-related accommodations for students and employees, including but not limited to managing and maintaining assistive technologies, researching, recommending, and training on technologies.

• Research, evaluate, recommend, and maintain college-wide digital applications, websites, and software to support accommodations, accessibility, and inclusion.
• Complete accessibility testing using various operating systems, assistive technologies, and other techniques.
• Develop and maintain expertise in assistive technologies, including but not limited to Kurzweil, Dragon Naturally Speaking, Sonocent, JAWS, and Zoom Text.
• Provide one-on-one technical support to students and employees with disability technology-related accommodations.
• Collaborate with the Associate Director of Digital Accessibility and Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services to manage OASID materials conversion (text to alternative format), note-taking technologies, processes for acquiring and creating captioned videos, transcripts of videos, and remote real-time transcription.

• Serve as accessibility subject matter expert for the college in digital accessibility, application accessibility, and creating accessible websites and content.
• Advise prospective and current students and employees regarding accessibility services, technology, and related resources both within and outside the college.
• Collaborate with the Associate Director of Digital Accessibility and Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services to define and carry out best practices for digital accessibility and digital efforts.
• Provide digital accessibility support and guidance to student groups, organizations, and event planners.

• Develop, revise, and maintain accessible content on the OASID website, including policies, processes, training, events, and programming.
• Stay abreast of best practices in digital accessibility, including updating web pages and adding new resources in a timely and accessible way.
• Participate in ongoing professional development and training to remain current in the disability services and digital accessibility fields and advise on proactive approaches to service and accommodation delivery.
• Support the development and delivery of training on digital accessibility, accessible content, and assistive technologies for students, faculty, and staff.
• Assist with developing training materials such as documents, Power Points, and videos that can be widely distributed to the college community.
• Other duties as assigned.

• Bachelor's degree in a related discipline.
• Minimum of three years of related experience, including a minimum of one year focused on digital accessibility and assistive technology.
• Familiarity with assistive technologies, accessibility testing, relevant legal requirements, technical standards, and best practices.
• Strong knowledge and understanding of assistive technologies for persons with disabilities, including Kurzweil, Dragon Naturally Speaking, JAWS, and Zoom Text.
• Proficiency with a wide array of assistive technologies and basic computer programs such as Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Zoom, and G‑Suite.
• Knowledge of accessibility auditing and testing tools and strategies.
• Strong web accessibility skills, including knowledge of online access issues and means for addressing them.

• Master's degree or certification‑related discipline.
• Minimum one year of working in a higher education disability service setting.
• Experience managing assistive technologies, alternate format conversions, databases, and websites for disability services, preferably in a higher education setting.
• Working knowledge of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, its 2008 amendments, and WCAG 2.1 as well as other appropriate laws pertaining to higher education and disabilities.
• Proficient in presenting and speaking publicly about digital accessibility to groups of individuals.
• Familiarity with inclusive and universal design for learning (UDL) pedagogies and experience researching, evaluating, and…