Accessibility Specialist

Department for Work and Pensions; Stafford; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 49,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Civil Service pension

Generous leave

Wellbeing support

Cycle to work

Learning & development

Job summary

The Department for Work and Pensions is seeking an Accessibility Specialist to work with DWP Digital and third-party suppliers to embed accessibility across products, services and communications throughout the procurement and delivery lifecycle.

You will collaborate with suppliers, service teams and stakeholders to ensure digital services meet accessibility standards, review evidence such as ACRs and statements, and help build capability through guidance, training and awareness activities.

Qualifications

• Good understanding of how to make web content accessible, using HTML, CSS, ARIA and JavaScript.
• Experience using assistive software and testing tools.
• Ability to influence stakeholders and external vendors to adopt accessibility improvements.
• Experience analyzing audit findings and advising on accessibility.

Responsibilities

• Work with third-party suppliers, service teams and stakeholders to ensure digital products and services meet accessibility standards and deliver inclusive user experiences.
• Provide expert accessibility advice and assurance throughout procurement, delivery and maintenance of digital services.
• Review and assess accessibility evidence, including audit reports and accessibility statements, identifying risks and recommending improvements.
• Develop accessibility capability across Corporate Centre Services through guidance, coaching, training materials and awareness activities.
• Engage with cross-government accessibility communities, promoting best practice and continuous improvement in accessibility.

Skills

Technical Understanding of Accessibl​y

Job description

Job summary

Are you a skilled and experienced Accessibility Specialist?

Do you have experience working with third-party suppliers to ensure digital products and services meet accessibility standards?

Corporate Centre Services is responsible for many of the digital systems used by colleagues across DWP. We are a team of digital professionals who procure, deliver and support technology solutions that enable our colleagues to do their jobs effectively.

We are looking for an Accessibility Specialist to join our team. You'll work closely with suppliers, service teams and stakeholders to embed accessibility throughout the procurement and delivery lifecycle, helping to ensure that the digital services our colleagues rely on are accessible and inclusive for everyone.

Job description

You will work across DWP Digital, with colleagues at a range of role levels to embed accessibility into all products, services and communications.

You will:

• Work with third-party suppliers, service teams and stakeholders to ensure digital products and services meet accessibility standards and deliver inclusive user experiences.
• Provide expert accessibility advice and assurance throughout the procurement, delivery and maintenance of digital services.
• Review and assess accessibility evidence, including audit reports, Accessibility Conformance Reports (ACRs) and accessibility statements, identifying risks and recommending improvements.
• Develop accessibility capability across Corporate Centre Services through guidance, coaching, training materials and awareness activities.
• Engage with and contribute to cross-government accessibility communities, promoting best practice and continuous improvement in accessibility.

Roles and responsibilities:

• Raise awareness and provide support, training and auditing to improve compliance with relevant legislation.
• Coordinate support and consultancy for third party suppliers, using your knowledge of programming languages, frameworks and techniques, to make content accessible for all users.
• Review and verify the validity of Accessibility Conformance Reports to ensure that products and services are accessible from go-live.
• Coordinate technical testing and user testing of digital products for accessibility or assistive software.
• Coordinate the delivery of procured digital products to meet accessibility requirements.
• Keep up to date with technological developments and take responsibility for own professional development.
• Identify training needs and monitor completion of professional development activities for Accessibility Specialists.

Person specification

See selection process for further details.

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Technical Understanding of Accessibility

Benefits

Alongside your salary of 44,447, Department for Work and Pensions contributes 12,876 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

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

• Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
• Generous annual leave at least 25 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (prorata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
• Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
• Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).
• Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 years continuous service.
• Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.
• An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Womens Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.

Hybrid Working

This role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work.

If a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for the role and for you, you will normally be required to spend a minimum of 60% of your contracted working hours from your DWP office.

If you have a disability, caring responsibilities, or other circumstances that may affect your ability to meet the minimum office attendance requirement, please discuss this with us using the contact details in this advert.

Salary Information

New entrants to the Civil Service will join on band minimum.

Existing Civil Servants who secure a new role on lateral transfer will maintain their current substantive salary.

Existing Civil Servants who gain promotion will move to the bottom of the grade pay scale or receive a 10% increase applied to their current substantive salary, whichever is greater.

Any temporary allowances that you are currently in receipt of will not form part of the calculation to determine your pay. Any allowances that are in payment will cease when you move into your new role.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window) , and will assess your Experience and Technical skills.

Stage 1: Application

Your application will consist of four parts:

1. A Personal Details application form.

2. Employment history - this should contain your work experience and any skills, qualifications and accomplishments relevant to the jobs you have completed.

3. Personal statement - up to 750 words. This statement should be used to provide examples of how you meet the essential criteria below:

• Good understanding of how to make web content accessible, using HTML, CSS, ARIA and JavaScript.
• Use of a range of assistive software (screen readers, screen magnifiers & voice recognition software) and automated tools for testing and demonstrating.
• Influence stakeholders and external vendors to adopt and improve the accessibility of services.
• Analysis of audit findings to help make difficult decisions and give advice about accessibility.

4. Technical statement (up to 250 words). The following statement is aligned to the required technical skill of Technical Understanding of Accessibility. This statement should be used to provide example(s) of how you meet the criterion below:

• Assessing websites and documents against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), investigating the cause of defects, and explaining the impact on end users.

Ensure that all examples provided in your statements are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. If you choose to use gen-AI to support your statements, you must follow the guidelines outlined in the Artificial intelligence and recruitment guide.

The sift panel will use the information in your employment history, personal statement, and technical statement to assess your experience, skills and knowledge.

An initial sift will be conducted using the technical statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift will be progressed to a full sift.

If you do progress to a full sift, you will be provided with one combined overall assessment score for both your employment history and Personal Statement.

For Hints and Tips on completing your application visit Applying for jobs at DWP Digital.

Important Information

• You will be asked to complete your employment history. Any information that you would customarily share on a CV should therefore be entered onto the application form.
• Personal details that could be used to identify you including your name, contact details and address must be removed for your application to be considered.
• If your employment history, personal statement or technical statement contain any personal details your application will be withdrawn.

Stage 2: Interview

If youre successful at the sift stage, youll be invited to a video interview via Microsoft Teams. During the interview.