Associate Director Accessibility

Academian Inc · India

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)