Accessibility Specialist

DWP Digital; Leeds; Hybrid; GBP 38,000 - 51,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Time off volunteering and charitable/g

Interest-free loans for bike/season-t

Professional development, coaching, &‑

Job summary

DWP Digital is seeking an Accessibility Specialist to embed accessibility across its digital services. You will advise on accessibility requirements, review audits and support suppliers to deliver accessible products and services.

Hybrid working is offered with a mix of home and hub collaboration. The role includes shaping accessibility at scale to benefit thousands of colleagues and users of government digital services.

Qualifications

• Experience using assistive technologies and accessibility testing tools.
• Strong stakeholder management, ability to influence colleagues, senior leaders and suppliers to improve accessibility.
• Experience reviewing accessibility audits, identifying risks and providing evidence-based recommendations.
• Experience assessing websites, applications and documents against WCAG, identifying accessibility issues and explaining impact on users.

Responsibilities

• Ensure digital products and services are accessible, inclusive and compliant with recognised accessibility standards.
• Collaborate with internal teams, stakeholders and third-party suppliers to embed accessibility throughout the lifecycle.
• Provide expert advice and assurance on accessibility requirements to help teams meet users' needs.
• Review accessibility evidence, including audit reports, ACRs and accessibility statements, identifying risks and practical improvements.
• Support testing activities, assess compliance against WCAG and help resolve issues before go-live.
• Champion accessibility across the organisation and develop colleagues and suppliers.

Skills

Assistive tech testing

Stakeholder management

Audit review & recommendations

WCAG assessment & impact communication

Job description

Join us as an Accessibility Specialist and help us to embed accessibility across DWP's digital services. You'll bring experience of accessibility testing, analysing audit findings, advising stakeholders, and supporting suppliers to deliver accessible products and services.

Our DWP Digital teams use fresh ideas and leading-edge tech to build and maintain digital solutions that will be used by nearly every person in the UK, every day and at key moments in their lives.

DWP is the UK's largest government department. We help people into work and make payments worth over £195bn a year to support and empower millions of people.

The scale of what we do is extraordinary, and our purpose is unique. We'd love you to join us.

What skills, knowledge and experience will you need?

• Experience using assistive technologies and accessibility testing tools, including screen readers, magnifiers, voice recognition software and automated testing.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence colleagues, senior leaders and suppliers to improve accessibility and inclusive design.
• Experience reviewing accessibility audits, identifying risks and providing evidence-based recommendations and advice.
• Experience assessing websites, applications and documents against WCAG, identifying accessibility issues and explaining their impact on users.

You and your role

As an Accessibility Specialist, you'll make sure the digital products and services used across DWP are accessible, inclusive and compliant with recognised accessibility standards.

Working within Corporate Centre Services, you will collaborate with internal teams, stakeholders and third-party suppliers to embed accessibility throughout the procurement, design, delivery and maintenance lifecycle.

You will provide expert advice and assurance on accessibility requirements, helping teams understand how digital services can be designed and developed to meet the needs of all users, including those who rely on assistive technologies.

You'll review accessibility evidence, including audit reports, Accessibility Conformance Reports (ACRs) and accessibility statements, identifying risks and recommending practical improvements.

Using your knowledge of accessibility standards, web technologies and assistive software, you will support technical and user testing activities, assess compliance against WCAG requirements and help resolve accessibility issues before products go live.

You will also champion accessibility across the organisation by delivering guidance, raising awareness, sharing best practice and developing the capability of colleagues and suppliers.

This is an opportunity to influence accessibility at scale, ensuring thousands of colleagues can access and use digital services effectively, regardless of their needs or abilities.

Hybrid Working:

We work a hybrid model - you'll spend some time working at home (40%) and some time collaborating face to face in a hub (60%).

Pay:

We offer competitive pay for this role of £44,447.

Pension:

You’ll get a brilliant civil service pension with employer contributions of 28.97%, worth over £12,876 per year.

Holidays:

A generous leave package starting at 25 (rising to 31 days over time).

You can also take up to 3 extra days off a month on flexi-time and the usual public holidays.

We have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:~

• Time off volunteering and charitable giving
• Interest-free loans to buy a bike or a season ticket
• Professional development, coaching, mentoring and career progression opportunities.

And we have an award-winning environment and culture:

• 2024 Diversity Employer of the Year at the Computing Women in Tech Excellence awards
• Diverse and Inclusive Leadership at Digital Leaders Awards 2024
• Best Place to Work in Digital category in the Computing Digital Technology Leaders awards 2025

Process:

We know your time is valuable, so our application and selection process is just two stages:

• Interview: A single stage interview online.