DHS Certified Accessibility Testing Expert

Summary
We are seeking an experienced Accessibility Testing Expert to provide advanced expertise in evaluating the accessibility and usability of digital products, applications, and content.
This role serves as a subject matter expert in digital accessibility and is responsible for conducting comprehensive accessibility assessments, identifying barriers that may impact people with disabilities, evaluating conformance with applicable accessibility standards, and providing clear, actionable guidance to support remediation.

The ideal candidate will bring strong expertise in WCAG standards, assistive technologies, manual accessibility testing, accessibility testing tools, and accessible design and development practices. This individual must be able to evaluate accessibility beyond automated testing, understand the real-world impact of accessibility barriers, and translate complex technical findings into practical recommendations for technical and nontechnical stakeholders.

The Accessibility Testing Expert will collaborate with developers, designers, quality assurance teams, product owners, vendors, and organizational stakeholders to integrate accessibility throughout the digital product lifecycle and support informed accessibility and compliance decisions.


Key Responsibilities

• Lead comprehensive accessibility evaluations of websites, applications, and digital content to assess conformance with WCAG 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2 standards and identify barriers that may impact users with disabilities..
• This is a Remote (work from home) position.
• Apply automated testing tools, assistive technologies, manual testing techniques, code inspection, and accessibility tree analysis to identify and validate accessibility barriers.
• Assess the severity, user impact, and accessibility risk of identified issues to support remediation prioritization and informed decision-making.
• Collaborate with developers, designers, QA, and product teams to provide clear remediation guidance, accessibility acceptance criteria, and recommendations that support accessible implementation.
• Validate accessibility remediation across iterative development cycles and confirm that identified barriers have been effectively resolved.
• Participate proactively in design and development reviews to identify accessibility risks early and embed accessibility throughout the product lifecycle.
• Review VPATs and Accessibility Conformance Reports (ACRs) and identify accessibility risks or gaps requiring further evaluation.
• Communicate accessibility findings, risks, priorities, and recommended remediation strategies to technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Support accessibility evaluations during procurement, implementation, and third-party vendor reviews.
• Conduct accessibility evaluations of electronic documents, including PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, against applicable WCAG, Section 508, and PDF/UA requirements.
• Validate document remediation to ensure content is correctly structured and usable with screen readers, keyboard navigation, and other assistive technologies.
• Contribute to organizational accessibility standards, testing methodologies, procedures, reusable best practices, training, and awareness initiatives.

Required Skills

• Advanced knowledge of WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 Level A and AA, Section 508, applicable ADA accessibility requirements, and familiarity with WCAG 2.0 for legacy content.
• Extensive hands-on experience testing with JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack.
• Proficiency with Axe DevTools, Accessibility Insights, WAVE, Color Contrast Analyzer, Acrobat Pro, and other accessibility testing tools.
• Strong working knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, semantic HTML, ARIA, WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices, and browser accessibility trees.
• Expertise in comprehensive manual and automated accessibility testing, including keyboard, screen reader, focus management, contrast, zoom/reflow, text spacing, and dynamic-content testing.
• Experience evaluating and remediating PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents, including knowledge of PDF/UA.
• Experience reviewing VPATs/ACRs and assessing accessibility risk.
• Ability to map findings accurately to WCAG criteria, severity, and user impact and provide actionable remediation guidance.
• Strong analytical, technical documentation, and communication skills, with the ability to explain accessibility requirements to both technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Ability to manage multiple accessibility assessments and collaborate effectively across development, design, QA, product, and business teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science or related field preferred.
• At least 8 years of professional experience performing accessibility testing and audits in web and mobile applications.
• Trusted Tester Certification issued by DHS or a similar certification in accessibility is preferred.

Originally posted on Himalayas