Document Accessibility Specialist, Temporary

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center; Dallas (TX); On-site; USD 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

PPO medical plan

Paid Time Off (PTO)

Retirement Programs (TRS)

Paid Parental Leave

Tuition Reimbursement

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)

Job summary

UT Southwestern Medical Center seeks a Document Accessibility Specialist to ensure documents are accessible, compliant, and usable by individuals with disabilities across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF formats. The role embeds accessibility early in the content lifecycle and partners with teams to improve workflows and templates.

This full-time, temporary assignment lasts one year with potential for permanency based on performance and department need.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in communications or related field; experience may substitute.
• 1–2 years of remediation of electronic documents and accessibility across formats.
• Experience creating accessible Word and PDF documents.

Responsibilities

• Audit and remediate documents for accessibility in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF.
• Create accessible source documents and final deliverables in multiple formats.
• Tag and QA PDFs to ensure WCAG and ADA alignment.
• Perform manual testing plus automated checks with assistive tech.
• Collaborate with authors, designers, and compliance teams to prioritize remediation.
• Develop accessible templates, checklists, and SOPs.
• Track remediation inventory and performance metrics.
• Provide accessible support for high-priority publications and forms.

Skills

WCAG principles

Section 508/ADA compliance

Assistive technology basics

Document structure & semantics

Accessibility testing (manual + tools)

WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA concepts

Education

Bachelor's Degree in communications, information technology, technical writing, or similar

Tools

Adobe Acrobat Pro

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft PowerPoint

Job description

WHY UT SOUTHWESTERN?

With over 75 years of excellence in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, UT Southwestern is committed to excellence, innovation, teamwork, and compassion. As a world-renowned medical and research center, we strive to provide the best possible care, resources, and benefits for our valued employees. Ranked as the number 1 hospital in Dallas-Fort Worth according to U.S. News & World Report, we invest in you with opportunities for career growth and development to align with your future goals. Our highly competitive benefits package offers healthcare, PTO and paid holidays, on-site childcare, wage, merit increases and so much more. We invite you to be a part of the UT Southwestern team where you'll discover a culture of teamwork, professionalism, and a rewarding career!

JOB SUMMARY

The Document Accessibility Specialist ensures that documents produced by UTSW are accessible, compliant, and usable by individuals with disabilities, including those using assistive technologies. This role supports institutional accessibility goals by auditing, remediating, and validating electronic documents across formats such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, and other published materials. The specialist also partners with teams to develop accessible workflows, templates, and authoring practices, embedding accessibility early in the content lifecycle and reducing reliance on last-minute remediation.

This is a full time, temporary assignment with an initial length of 1 year. There is then an opportunity to move to a permanent role depending on performance and department need.

BENEFITS

UT Southwestern is proud to offer a competitive and comprehensive benefits package to eligible employees. Our benefits are designed to support your overall wellbeing, and include:

• PPO medical plan, available day one at no cost for full-time employee-only coverage
• 100% coverage for preventive healthcare-no copay
• Paid Time Off, available day one
• Retirement Programs through the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS)
• Paid Parental Leave Benefit
• Wellness programs
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Qualified Employer
• Learn more about these and other UTSW employee benefits!

EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION

REQUIRED

• Education
  Bachelor's Degree in communications, information technology, technical writing, or a similar degree. Years of applicable experience may be used in lieu of degree
• Experience
  Minimum of 1-2 years of experience in remediation of electronic documents.
  Previous experience creating and remediating accessible electronic documents across multiple formats, including Word and PDF.

PREFERRED

• Experience
  Familiarity with clinical or healthcare environments.
  Demonstrated experience in creating accessible PDF forms.
  Experience with PowerPoint and Excel is strongly preferred.
• Licenses and Certifications
  International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP)
  Accessible Document Specialist (ADS) certification
  IAAP Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC)

JOB DUTIES

• Audit and remediate electronic documents for accessibility issues, including heading structure, reading order, lists, tables, hyperlinks, form fields, color contrast, and alternative text.
• Create accessible source documents and final deliverables in formats such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, and other organizational publication formats.
• Tag and perform quality assurance on PDFs and other exported files to ensure alignment of WCAG standards, ADA requirements, and organizational guidelines.
• Conduct manual testing supplemented by automated tools, to validate usability with assistive technologies, and identify issues not detected by accessibility checker.
• Collaborate with content authors, designers, communications, legal/compliance, and program teams to prioritize remediation efforts and improve accessibility earlier in the content lifecycle.
• Develop and maintain accessible templates, checklists, SOPs, and training materials to improve consistency efficiency, and scalability.
• Track remediation inventory, turnaround times, recurring issue patterns, and level-of-effort by document type and complexity.
• Provide timely accessibility support for high-priority publications, forms, reports, and public-facing materials.
• Stay current on evolving accessibility standards, tools, organizational requirements, and best practices.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• WCAG principles
• Section 508 / ADA compliance
• Assistive technology basics
• Document structure & semantics
• Accessibility testing (manual + tools)
• Demonstrated knowledge of accessible document structure, including headings, lists, tables, alt text, reading order, bookmarks, links, artifacts, and form controls.
• Working knowledge of WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA concepts as they apply to document content, plus familiarity with document-specific standards and best practices such as PDF/UA and related testing approaches.

SECURITY AND EEO STATEMENT

Security

This position is security-sensitive and subject to Texas Education Code 51.215, which authorizes UT Southwestern to obtain criminal history record information.

EEO

UT Southwestern Medical Center is committed to an educational and working environment that provides equal opportunity to all members of the University community. As an equal opportunity employer, UT Southwestern prohibits unlawful discrimination, including discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, disability, genetic information, citizenship status, or veteran status.