Associate Director Accessibility

Position Summary

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

management skills.

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

eBooks (EPUB)

PDFs

Interactive learning products

Multimedia content

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.

Team Leadership

Lead and mentor Accessibility Managers, Leads, Specialists, QA Engineers, and Consultants.

Establish career development plans and competency frameworks.

Recruit and develop accessibility talent.

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.

Innovation

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

JavaScript

Accessible UX/UI principles

EPUB Accessibility

PDF Accessibility (PDF/UA)

XML workflows

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)

EPUB production workflows

Interactive digital learning products

Content remediation programs

Accessibility consulting

Leadership Competencies

Strategic thinking

Executive communication

Cross-functional leadership

Program management

Change management

Stakeholder influence

Decision-making

Team building and mentoring

Customer engagement

Budget and resource planning

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

WCAG compliance score

Accessibility audit pass rate

Remediation turnaround time

Customer satisfaction

Accessibility defect leakage

Team utilization and productivity

Training completion rate

Process automation adoption

On-time delivery

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)

Trusted Tester Certification

Section 508 Trusted Tester (preferred)