| Location | Mesa, AZ |
The Director, Disability Services oversees institutional accessibility initiatives and provides strategic, administrative oversight, operational direction, and compliance leadership for disability resources and Testing Services. The Director ensures accessible, equitable, legally compliant, and student-centered services while advancing an institutional culture in which accessibility is understood as a shared responsibility. Reporting to the Dean, Student Support Services, the Director leads the development and delivery of comprehensive services and ensuring equitable access, student success, independence, and full participation in all institutional programs, services, and activities for students with disabilities in accordance with federal and state law, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. This includes ensuring effective communication access and appropriate auxiliary aids and services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, including coordination of sign-language interpreting, captioning, and other communication-access services as appropriate.
A Director, Disability Services ensures that students and visitors with disabilities have equal access to educational programs, services, and facilities. The incumbent oversees the accommodation review and approval process, manages disability services staff, coordinates with faculty and departments on accommodation implementation, and ensures the institution maintains compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Director also ensures that communication-access needs of Deaf and Hard of Hearing students are appropriately identified, coordinated, and supported, including interpreter and related services.
Serving as the colleges primary subject-matter leader for student disability access, the Director provides leadership and consultation regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, reasonable accommodations, accessibility, and related institutional policies and practices. The Director leads a comprehensive department with professional and support staff that integrates accommodation services with a proactive, institution-wide approach to student accessibility, including universal design, digital accessibility, and assistive technology. The position establishes departmental priorities, practices, procedures, and service standards (cross-training, case-management, assistive resources, etc.); oversees disability eligibility and accommodation processes; addresses complex student and faculty matters; manages departmental resources; assesses program effectiveness; and ensures compliance with applicable federal, state, district, and college requirements. The Director provides leadership for auxiliary aids and communication-access services, including the coordination of interpreters and other services supporting Deaf and Hard of Hearing students. The Director is accountable for advancing institutional accessibility, managing compliance and risk, leading staff and operations, and improving student access, persistence, and success outcomes.
In addition, the Director also provides strategic direction and administrative oversight for Testing Services, ensuring accessible, secure, efficient, student-centered, and appropriately administered testing operations that support students, faculty, academic programs, placement and assessment activities, and other institutional testing needs.
As a college leader, the Director collaborates extensively with faculty, staff, administrators, students, community agencies, educational partners, and district offices to advance accessibility, improve student services, strengthen institutional practices, resolve complex concerns, and support college-wide student success and completion priorities.
Additional Information
About the Role
While technical expertise in disability services and regulatory compliance is essential, Mesa Community College needs a director who can lead people, systems, services, partnerships, and institutional change. The Director is expected to serve as a strategic leader, department administrator, compliance resource, student advocate, faculty partner, supervisor, problem solver, and institutional accessibility leader. The Director also provides leadership and oversight for communication access for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, ensuring that interpreter, captioning, and other appropriate auxiliary services are effectively coordinated and integrated into the Colleges overall disability-access framework.
The Director will inherit responsibility for services that directly affect students ability to access instruction, participate equitably in the educational environment, and progress toward their educational goals. The position therefore requires an individual who can balance: student access, regulatory compliance, faculty partnership, operational effectiveness, and sound professional judgment.
Therefore, the director must be capable of working effectively across organizational boundaries. Success requires building trust and productive partnerships with faculty and academic leadership while maintaining clear professional standards, sound compliance practices, responsive student services, and appropriate departmental accountability.
The Director leads two functions that frequently intersect with the academic experience:
Disability Services ensures that qualified students with disabilities have equitable access to college programs, services, courses, activities, facilities, and educational opportunities. This includes ensuring effective communication access for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students through timely coordination of interpreters, captioning, and other appropriate auxiliary aids and services.
Testing Services provides critical infrastructure supporting assessment, accommodated testing, faculty testing needs, placement and other examinations, and additional testing functions designated by the College.
The position should continually move both departments beyond transactional service delivery toward intentional, measurable, accessible, and student-centered operations.
Key Responsibilities:
Provide strategic leadership and direction for Disability Services and Testing Services, aligning departmental priorities with college goals for access, student success, retention, and completion.
Lead, supervise, develop, and evaluate professional and support staff while establishing clear expectations for performance, accountability, collaboration, and student service.
Ensure and maintain institutional compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), ADA Amendments Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, relevant state disability rights laws, and applicable college and district policies and procedures.
Oversee disability eligibility, documentation review, interactive processes, and the determination, coordination, and implementation of reasonable accommodations, auxiliary aids, and services, including communication-access services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students.
Provide leadership and oversight for services supporting Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, including coordination of sign-language interpreters, captioning, and other communication-access services and auxiliary aids, ensuring timely, appropriate, and effective access to instruction and college programs, services, activities, and events.
Incorporate the perspectives and accessibility needs of Deaf and Hard of Hearing students into program planning, outreach, service delivery, and continuous improvement.
Coordinate with students, faculty, staff, academic departments, service providers, and external vendors to anticipate, schedule, implement, and monitor interpreter and other communication-access services; address service disruptions or emerging needs; and ensure continuity and quality of service.
Provide leadership and professional judgment for complex, sensitive, or disputed accommodation matters, including consultation with students, faculty, administrators, and other stakeholders.
Handle formal accommodation grievances and respond to Department of Education OCR inquiries on disability-related complaints
Provide strategic and operational oversight for Testing Services, including accommodated testing, staffing, scheduling, security, technology, capacity, and service standards.
Establish, evaluate, and continuously improve policies, procedures, workflows, service standards, and case-management practices for Disability and Testing Services.
Develop and sustain a cross-trained, case-management-based service model that promotes continuity of service, shared staff capacity, and coordinated student support, including proactive outreach to anticipate and address potential barriers and responsive/reactive outreach when students experience emerging academic, access, or accommodation-related concerns.
Build strong partnerships with faculty, academic deans, Student Affairs leaders, and other college stakeholders to support effective accommodation implementation while maintaining essential academic requirements.
Serve as a college-wide subject-matter expert and consultant on disability access and accessibility, providing education, guidance, training, and technical assistance to faculty, staff, and administrators.
Advance accessibility as a shared institutional responsibility by identifying and reducing barriers within instructional practices, technology, communications, programs, services, and physical environments.
Use data, assessment, student feedback, and key performance indicators to evaluate service effectiveness, identify gaps and trends, guide decision-making, and support continuous improvement.
Leverage and improve technology and information systems supporting disability case management, accommodation communication, testing operations, student access, and departmental efficiency.
Manage digital accessibility review processes in coordination with IT and web services to ensure ADA Title II digital compliance.
Develop and manage departmental budgets, staffing, technology, and other resources, ensuring responsible stewardship and alignment with student needs, service demands, and institutional priorities.
Develop and maintain effective relationships with district partners, community agencies, disability organizations, and other external partners supporting student access and success.
Represent Disability and Testing Services in institutional planning, committees, accreditation, compliance, and strategic initiatives, while advocating for equitable access and an inclusive student experience.
Why This Role Matters
Disability Services occupies a unique position at a community college because its responsibilities simultaneously involve student success, civil rights, institutional compliance, academic access, and risk management.
Students with disabilities must be able to access the Colleges educational opportunities without unnecessary institutional barriers. At the same time, faculty and employees need knowledgeable leadership to navigate complex questions regarding accommodations, accessibility, essential academic requirements, testing, technology, and student support.
Students with disabilities may encounter barriers involving classroom instruction, instructional materials, technology, physical environments, testing, communication, and institutional processes. The Director is responsible for ensuring that the college has effective systems for identifying and addressing those barriers.
For Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, effective access may depend on timely and reliable communication-access services, including qualified interpreters, captioning, and other auxiliary aids and services. Delays or gaps in these services can directly affect a students ability to participate in instruction, interact with faculty and peers, complete academic activities, and fully engage in the college experience. The Director therefore plays an important leadership role in ensuring that communication access is proactively planned, appropriately coordinated, and responsive to changing student and instructional needs.
Testing Services similarly serves as an important intersection between students and the academic enterprise. Its effectiveness influences access, instructional support, student progression, accommodated testing, and the overall student experience.
Strong and effective leadership in this position should produce:
Compliance under federal and state disability requirements
Timely, reliable, improved consistent accommodation processes and appropriately coordinated communication-access services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students.
Improved coordination with interpreters, captioning providers, and other communication-access service partners.
Reduced institutional barriers to student participation and success.
Improved student understanding of disability services, student independence, agency, and self-advocacy.
Provide faculty with knowledgeable and responsive consultation; and greater faculty confidence regarding accommodation implementation.
Stronger institutional compliance.
More consistent documentation and decision-making.
Improved coordination between Disability Services and Testing Services.
Strengthened testing accessibility, integrity, security, and service delivery.
Identified systemic accessibility concerns before they become significant student or institutional problems.
Reduced barriers to instructional and student services.
Improved collaboration among Student Affairs, Academic Affairs, College Operations, community partners, and district functions.
Increased institutional understanding that accessibility is a shared responsibility.
Better use of technology and data.
Use evidence and assessment to continually improve services.
Greater accountability for service standards.
Essential Functions
50% Strategic Leadership, Personnel Management & Organizational Effectiveness
Provide strategic leadership and direction for Disability Services and Testing Services. Establish departmental goals, priorities, service expectations, accountability measures, and operational procedures aligned with institutional priorities and student-success goals.
Serve as a primary institutional subject matter expert on student disability access, accessibility compliance, and inclusive design. Advise college leadership on ADA, Section 504, and related legal and regulatory requirements, emerging issues, institutional risk, and best practices in delivery of student accessibility.
Provide strategic oversight of systems and processes for coordinating interpreters and other communication-access services, including service scheduling, communication with students and faculty, coordination with service providers, and continuity and quality of service.
Establish key performance indicators and evaluate departmental effectiveness, including accommodation timeliness, student utilization, testing demand, student experience, service responsiveness, and other appropriate measures.
Use quantitative and qualitative information to identify service gaps, workload concerns, barriers, and opportunities for improvement.
Recruit, supervise, develop, evaluate, and coach employees; establish clear performance expectations; promote teamwork and accountability; manage workplace concerns appropriately; and develop staff capacity.
Evaluate organizational structure, staffing, workflows, workloads, and service delivery models and implement improvements when needed.
Create an organizational culture characterized by professionalism, collaboration, responsiveness, accountability, continuous learning, and student-centered service.
Evaluate and leverage technology to improve case management, accommodation communication, scheduling, records management, and student access.
Prepare reports and evidence supporting institutional planning, accreditation, compliance, and continuous improvement.
Lead organizational and operational change when needed to improve services.
Develop and manage assigned budgets and ensure responsible stewardship of institutional resources.
Evaluate resource needs and ensure effective allocation and utilization of appropriate staffing, technology, equipment, professional development, and operational investments.
Participate in institutional committees, planning initiatives, emergency or continuity planning, and other responsibilities appropriate to the Directors position.
Demonstrate the leadership capacity to serve, when designated, on behalf of the Dean of Student Support Services during the Dean's absence, providing continuity of leadership, operational oversight, decision-making, and coordination across assigned Student Support Services areas.
25% Disability Services Administration, Compliance & Complex Case Oversight
Provide leadership for disability eligibility, documentation review, interactive processes, reasonable accommodations, auxiliary aids and services, including communication-access services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, and related student support.
Oversee the timely coordination and implementation of interpreters, captioning, and other appropriate communication-access services, working with students, faculty, staff, service providers, and external partners as needed.
Ensure appropriate implementation of ADA, ADA Amendments Act, Section 504, applicable regulations, institutional policies, and established relevant institutional policies, procedures, and professional practices.
Manage escalated student situations, including student grievances and complex accommodation cases requiring advanced judgment and institutional coordination.
Oversee the operational management of testing services, including scheduling, proctoring, and coordination of appropriate testing environments.
Ensure timely provision of accessible instructional materials, communication-access services, and accommodations while balancing student access, institutional obligations, and operational effectiveness.
Provide consultation and decision-making for complex accommodation matters, disputes, unusual circumstances, and situations requiring significant professional judgment.
Ensure accurate, confidential, timely, and defensible case documentation and records management and departmental internal controls.
Identify and address systemic barriers affecting students with disabilities.
Promote practices that support student independence, self-advocacy, persistence, and completion.
Monitor service delivery and address systemic compliance or accessibility concerns.
10% Testing Services Strategic Direction & Operational Oversight
Provide strategic and administrative oversight for Testing Services and ensure effective coordination between testing operations and disability-related testing accommodations.
Establish expectations and maintain appropriate standards for integrity, confidentiality, accessibility, and student-centered testing operations.
Ensure and monitor staffing, scheduling, technology utilization, testing procedures, service demand, security protocols, faculty communication, and operational effectiveness.
Ensures appropriate distinction between general Testing Services functions and disability accommodation responsibilities while creating efficient coordination between the two areas.
Partner with academic departments and faculty regarding testing needs.
Evaluate emerging testing practices and technologies and recommends improvements.
10% Institutional Collaboration, Faculty Partnership & Accessibility Leadership
Develop productive partnerships with faculty, department chairs, academic deans, Student Affairs leadership, IT, Facilities, Human Resources, district personnel, and other stakeholders.
Provide consultation and education regarding accommodations, accessibility, disability-related responsibilities, effective communication access for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, and effective practices.
Collaborate with faculty, academic departments, and other college stakeholders to anticipate and address communication-access needs, including interpreter scheduling and coordination, classroom and instructional considerations, captioning, and other services supporting equitable participation by Deaf and Hard of Hearing students.
Work collaboratively to resolve complex faculty/student accommodation concerns while protecting students rights and maintaining academic standards and essential course requirements.
Advocate for accessibility in technology, facilities, communications, programs, and institutional practices.
Collaborate with K-12 schools and universities, as well as develop relationships with community agencies and external partners to strengthen transition and referral pathways where appropriate to support students with disabilities, including relationships with organizations and providers that support Deaf and Hard of Hearing students and communication access.
5% Other Duties as Assigned
Perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned that are appropriate to the scope, level, and responsibilities of the Director position.
Participate in college and district committees, workgroups, special projects, and institutional initiatives as assigned.
Represent Disability Services, Testing Services, Student Affairs, or the college at meetings, programs, and events as appropriate.
Provide leadership or operational support during periods of transition, emerging institutional needs, or other circumstances requiring director-level involvement.
Support broader Student Affairs and college priorities that advance student access, persistence, retention, completion, and institutional effectiveness.