On the screen is a post from the LinkedIn Jobs board for a position as an accessibility consultant at an e-learning software company. From what I can understand, it’s mostly math courses that are available online and in different formats. So a few of the interesting bullet points from this post is one, meet with students or accessibility contacts at schools. So accessibility coordinators, accessibility testers, etc., to ensure accessibility meets the spirit of WCAG as well as the letter of the guidelines. Also, verify permanent fixes to accessibility issues. Coordinate with upper management for maintenance of accessibility language. Creation of external accessibility statements.
So that’s interesting that they’re working on external accessibility statements. Coordinate with developers to ensure accessibility is included in all project planning. Develop and maintain internal standards for accessibility and code development. So I could continue on. There are many more bullet points, but it sounds like they are looking for someone to really take a role as an accessibility coordinator. They don’t want to make it full-time, it’s still a consultant, but there is quite a lot of work to be done based on the listings of what the job responsibilities are and a few of the requirements.
One, they want a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field. I think that will easily be bypassed if someone has the relevant experience. The next bullet point is proven experience. So it says Proven Experience two to five years working as an accessibility consultant or in a similar role. And then there’s another bullet point in-depth knowledge of accessibility standards and guidelines, including WCAG section 508, ADA, AODA, and it says WCAG 2.1, 2.2. So I’ll stop reading the post at there.
But the reason why I’m making this video is to bring forward the market demand for accessibility. Note that this is not just implicating this e-learning company, this is also implicating the schools that they work with. And I think that’s important because it goes to show that accessibility is in such demand that any type of educational entity is going to need help with accessibility. And what’s also of note is that this is only for a consultant position. So it’s only for a part-time contract, not full-time. But this is perfect for anybody who wants to flex in and out of hours, have flexible hours. This is very likely remote work.
And you can start working on your own accessibility business at the same time. So in this case, you could have several clients and be working on multiple things at once and really diversify your work portfolio so that you’re not reliant upon one company or your own marketing and sales and your ability to bring in clients. You have got multiple streams of income coming in. So there are real and true career and entrepreneurial paths in accessibility. And I think this post exemplifies the demand. And I think you will continue to see posts like this from educational entities as well as from you’ll see this from many other larger organizations because they must have accessibility.
And so they need someone that can help with this. And as soon as they try to make this work in house, they are going to realize that they can’t do it themselves. This is more work than someone else can just stack on or tack on to their additional responsibilities. And so it really becomes its own position in and of itself. And I think even with tools and AI that are making parts of accessibility easier, you’re still going to need someone to fill that role for quite some time because there’s a lot to accessibility. And working with all of these other people and making sure that accessibility not only becomes a part of the process within the organization, but also that any contractors, subcontractors, anybody else, that any other organizations that the company is working with, that they are also following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and bringing those principles forward in any other digital experiences.
So, of course, everything is digital now. So accessibility is a must-have and I think these jobs will continue to be present. So I think if you’re looking into accessibility as a possible way to make money, as a possible job, as a possible way to start a business, I would do both. I would apply for positions like this position looks really good because of its flexibility. You could have this position, they have a lot of work to be done, but you could also start your own business on the side so that you could supplement that and then stack on additional work as it comes. And again, one of the huge benefits here is, is remote. So there’s a lot of time and money savings just in the fact that it’s remote and it pays fairly well. So this job posting did not list the pay.
