We are staffing this role for a contingent project and identifying qualified candidates now. The position does not exist until the project is awarded. Candidates selected will be asked to confirm availability and sign a contingent commitment letter. No work or compensation begins before award.
Mandatory. Current DHS Trusted Tester Level 5 (or later) certification — hard requirement, cannot be waived or obtained after selection. Broad knowledge of the Revised Section 508 Standards. Two years of accessibility testing experience. Two years of testing and remediating electronic documents for Section 508.
~1,880 hours/year, about 36 hours per week – 60/hour
The work. The senior hands-on testing seat on a federal Section 508 accessibility program. You test web content and electronic documents against the federal conformance standard, remediate what fails, and advise the teams whose products you tested on how to fix them and how to avoid the same defects next time. The program sets accessibility policy for a large federal organization and provides testing, remediation, and technical assistance to component IT programs across it. Your findings feed compliance reporting that reaches executive level.
· Perform Section 508 conformance testing of ICT using the DHS Trusted Tester Conformance Test Process for Web, v5.0 or later, with current approved assessment methods, test reporting tools, and formats.
· Perform document remediation for electronic documents and forms, including Microsoft Office and Adobe PDF, using the Section 508 Tests for Documents endorsed by the Federal CIO Council Accessibility Community of Practice.
· Develop accessibility test plans, advise on interpreting results and remediating defects, and provide remediation support for ICT.
· Provide technical assistance on questions arising during technical evaluation of Accessibility Conformance Reports and VPATs, and from testing.
· Provide technical assistance to students completing accessibility training and Trusted Tester certification examinations.
Also needed. WCAG 2.0 A and AA and 36 CFR Part 1194. Practical remediation in Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Adobe PDF: heading structure, reading order, alt text, table structure, form field labeling and tab order, tagging, bookmarks, color contrast. Screen reader testing with JAWS, NVDA, or VoiceOver. Clear written English — results go to program managers and executives, not only developers. Judgment to hold a finding when a program team pushes back, and tact to do it without turning the conversation adversarial.
This is a remote position.