Web Accessibility Consultant

Position Purpose:

The Tennessee Department of Children's Services (DCS) is seeking a Web Accessibility Consultant to support the Department's efforts to create, remediate, test, and maintain accessible electronic documents and forms intended for publication or distribution.

The consultant will work closely with the DCS Policy team to ensure electronic documents are developed and remediated in accordance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, 2.2, Level AA, applicable PDF/UA requirements, DCS document standards, and established digital accessibility practices.

The consultant must be able to improve the accessibility and semantic structure of official DCS documents while preserving the documents' substantive content, meaning, terminology, legal requirements, and policy intent.

The successful candidate will have the following skills and experience:

• WCAG 2.1, 2.2, Level AA requirements applicable to electronic documents.
• PDF/UA requirements, accessible PDF structure, and PDF tagging.
• Advanced Microsoft Word accessibility, including Styles, Headings, Lists, Tables, Hyperlinks, Images, Document Properties, and accessible PDF conversion.
• Adobe Acrobat Pro accessibility remediation, including Tags, Reading Order, Tables, Links, Figures, Document Properties, and Form Fields.
• Creating and remediating accessible fillable PDF Forms, including Field Labels, Tab Order, Radio Buttons, Checkboxes, Instructions, Keyboard Navigation, and Screen-Reader Usability.
• Establishing logical document structure, heading hierarchy, reading order, and navigation.
• Creating meaningful hyperlink text and appropriate alternative text.
• Properly identifying decorative images and other content that should not be announced by assistive technology.
• Remediating complex tables and recognizing when information would be more accessible if restructured as headings, lists, or paragraphs.
• Using automated accessibility checkers including WebAIM Contrast Checker, WAVE, ANDI, Color Contrast Analyzer, and NVDA.
• Performing manual accessibility testing.
• Experience using PAC (PDF Accessibility Checker), the Matterhorn Protocol, or comparable PDF/UA testing methods is strongly preferred.

• Review and remediate DCS policy documents, protocol documents, fillable forms, and other related documents for accessibility.
• Create accessible Microsoft Word source documents and convert them to accessible PDFs when required.
• Remediate existing PDFs to meet applicable WCAG 2.1, 2.2, AA and PDF/UA requirements.
• Create or remediate accessible electronic forms, with special attention to Form Fields, Labels, Instructions, Grouping, Tab Order, and Keyboard Navigation.
• Conduct automated and manual accessibility testing, including review of document structure, reading order, forms, tables, links, images, and navigation.
• Perform quality-control reviews of remediated documents before publication.
• Assist with development or refinement of accessible Word and form templates.
• Identify recurring accessibility issues and recommend practices that reduce the need for future remediation.