Associate Director Accessibility

Academian Inc; Pune District; On-site; INR 3,500,000 - 5,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Academian Inc. seeks an experienced Associate Director – Accessibility to shape and lead enterprise accessibility across digital products, educational content, and publishing workflows. You will define the accessibility vision, ensure global compliance, drive innovation, and build a high-performing team.

You will partner with Product, Engineering, UX, Editorial, and Customer Success to drive KPI-driven accessibility improvements, audits, and training across the organisation.

Qualifications

• Over 12–18+ years of overall experience in accessibility or related fields.
• Proven leadership of enterprise accessibility programs and teams.
• Strong knowledge of WCAG, ARIA, HTML5, CSS and EPUB/PDF accessibility.
• Experience partnering with Product, Engineering, UX, Editorial, and Customer Success.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the organization’s accessibility strategy and roadmap.
• Establish governance, standards, policies, and best practices for accessibility.
• Lead internal and external accessibility audits and remediation efforts.
• Oversee accessibility across web, mobile, HTML content, PDFs, and learning products.
• Mentor and develop accessibility managers, leads, specialists, QA engineers, and consultants.

Skills

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Cross-functional leadership

Program management

Change management

Team building

Budget and resource planning

Executive communication

Strategic thinking

Decision-making

Tools

Axe DevTools

WAVE

ARC Toolkit

Accessibility Insights

JAWS

NVDA

VoiceOver

TalkBack

PAC

Common PDF accessibility tools

Job description

We are seeking an experienced and strategic Associate Director – Accessibility to lead our enterprise

accessibility initiatives across digital products, educational content, and publishing workflows. This

leadership role will be responsible for defining the accessibility vision, ensuring compliance with global

accessibility standards, driving innovation, and building a high-performing accessibility team. The ideal

candidate combines deep technical accessibility expertise with strong people leadership and stakeholder

Key Responsibilities

Accessibility Strategy & Leadership

• Develop and execute the organization's accessibility roadmap aligned with business objectives.
• Establish accessibility governance, standards, policies, and best practices.
• Champion accessibility as a core business function across departments.
• Build a culture of accessibility awareness through training and advocacy.

Compliance & Standards

Ensure compliance with:

• WCAG 2.2 AA
• Section 508
• ADA
• EN 301 549
• EPUB Accessibility 1.1
• PDF/UA
• ARIA Authoring Practices

Monitor changes in accessibility regulations and industry standards.

Lead internal and external accessibility audits.

Digital Product & Content Accessibility

Oversee accessibility for:

• Websites
• Mobile applications
• HTML content
• PDFs
• Interactive learning products

Review product accessibility during design, development, QA, and production phases.

Technical Leadership

• Define accessibility requirements for engineering and content teams.
• Guide implementation of accessible UI components and design systems.
• Evaluate accessibility testing tools and automation frameworks.
• Drive accessibility integration into CI/CD pipelines where applicable.
• Lead and mentor Accessibility Managers, Leads, Specialists, QA Engineers, and Consultants.
• Recruit and develop accessibility talent.
• Establish career development plans and competency frameworks.

Stakeholder Management

• Partner with Product, Engineering, UX, QA, Editorial, and Customer Success teams.
• Engage with customers regarding accessibility requirements and compliance.
• Present accessibility metrics and strategic updates to executive leadership.

Quality Assurance

• Define accessibility quality metrics and KPIs.
• Establish accessibility review checkpoints across project lifecycles.
• Oversee remediation planning and verification.
• Explore AI-assisted accessibility solutions.
• Evaluate emerging assistive technologies.
• Drive continuous process improvements and automation.

Required Qualifications

• 12–18+ years of overall experience.
• 10+ years in accessibility leadership or management roles.
• Experience leading enterprise accessibility programs.
• Strong knowledge of digital publishing and educational content accessibility is highly desirable.

Technical Expertise

• WCAG 2.2 AA
• WAI-ARIA
• HTML5
• CSS
• EPUB Accessibility
• PDF Accessibility (PDF/UA)
• Accessibility testing methodologies
• Accessibility Testing Tools
• Experience with tools such as:
  • Axe DevTools
  • WAVE
  • ARC Toolkit
  • Accessibility Insights
  • JAWS
  • NVDA
  • VoiceOver
  • TalkBack
  • PAC
  • Common PDF accessibility tools

Preferred Experience

• Educational publishing
• Digital publishing
• eLearning platforms
• Learning Management Systems (LMS)
• Interactive digital learning products
• Content remediation programs
• Accessibility consulting
• Strategic thinking
• Executive communication
• Cross-functional leadership
• Program management
• Change management
• Decision-making
• Team building and mentoring
• Budget and resource planning

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• WCAG compliance score
• Accessibility audit pass rate
• Remediation turnaround time
• Accessibility defect leakageTeam utilization and productivity
• Training completion rate
• Process automation adoption
• Accessibility maturity improvement

Preferred Certifications

• IAAP Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC)
• IAAP Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS)
• IAAP Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA)