Senior Accessibility Specialist in Manchester

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government. Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government by:

• joining up public sector services
• harnessing the power of AI for the public good
• strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
• elevating leadership and investing in talent
• funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
• committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.

We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol. The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale. Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You'll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need.

As an accessibility specialist at GDS you’ll work in multidisciplinary teams, alongside researchers, designers and developers, to deliver world-class, user centred public services. You’ll help the government transform the way it delivers services, so that they’re more efficient, simpler, faster and easier to use. You’ll focus on our solutions (including native iOS and Android apps) to help users prove their identity and use digital credentials at scale.

As a Senior Accessibility Specialist you’ll:

• work with the Accessibility lead and Head of UCD to evolve our accessibility strategy and practice that goes beyond basic WCAG compliance
• be able to demonstrate a passion for inclusive and accessible design
• identify and implement ways to champion and embed accessibility in regular practice for all GOV.UK One Login colleagues
• share accessibility knowledge within GOV.UK One Login and across GDS, providing accessibility consultancy, increasing capability and raising awareness
• write guidance and documentation and advise on applying WCAG requirements and accessibility best practice to our service
• contribute to policy, governance and assurance processes
• assess products for accessibility best practices and conformance with accessibility standards and regulations
• provide proactive consultancy with product teams, helping them meet accessibility standards and best practices
• review implementations using a range of techniques including design reviews, automated testing and manual code inspection
• recommend solutions for code, design and content to be as accessible as possible

Person specification: We’re interested in people who have:

• demonstrable experience of evaluating the accessibility of iOS and Android apps or websites, providing feedback, advice and solutions to help fix identified barriers
• expert knowledge of existing and emerging accessibility guidelines and standards, particularly the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.2 and proven ability to identify barriers that impact users that technically "pass" a WCAG accessibility audit
• knowledge and experience of testing with a range of assistive technologies including iOS and Android native accessibility features, screen magnification, screen readers, speech recognition and literacy software
• proven experience of collaborating with agile multidisciplinary delivery teams to identify and fix accessibility barriers and raising accessibility capability by guiding others and offering recommendations on the best tools and methods to use
• experience of iterating, improving and challenging accessibility strategy, governance and assurance processes, and leading initiatives to raise accessibility maturity or remove risks associated with not meeting accessibility standards

Please note: This role requires SC clearance, which would normally need 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible. DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.