Accessibility Engineering Lead-Frontend

Role Overview:
Accessibility leader with a background in Frontend Development that has the ability to tackle
technical related accessibility needs, drive accessible technical solutions and practices to teams
across the VA, and shape the technical direction of the Digital Experience Accessibility program.
Primary Responsibilities:
● Onboard all new VFS product teams to the OCTO accessibility practice and ways of
working, specifically from a technical lens.
● Support the management and tracking of the technical work of the program's accessibility
specialists in support of all VFS products via GitHub tickets, Looker Studio dashboard, and
Slack channel communication.
● Test code in development with various devices and software platforms.
● Debug accessibility bugs and propose code fixes.
● Resolve issues in the VA design system as reported through an accessibility escalation
pathway.
● Run automated code scans upon check-in to catch code-related accessibility bugs at the
source.
● Embed as a team member on VFS product teams who don’t have their own technical
accessibility specialist.
● Create accessible code from the earliest point possible, rather than have an accessibility
review at the end of the development cycle, and empower/guide developers across VFS
product teams to do the same.
● Serves as a mentor and trainer on technical accessibility best practices, processes, and
standards for VFS product teams across the VA.
● Communicate effectively in Slack, GitHub tickets, and process documents.
● Support an active accessibility champions program and accessibility community of
practice.
Role Requirements:
● Bachelor’s degree and 9+ years of experience
● Expert in Web Content Accessibility Guidance 2.2 (WCAG 2.2)
● Expert in Section 508 Compliance
● Ability to advise on the more technical aspects of VA.gov coding standards, build
systems, automated scanning, etc.
● Ability to advise VFS developers on proper coding for accessibility, suggest bug fixes,
and contribute fixes to the VA Design System where needed.
● Strong influential skills to with the ability to drive consensus from varying stakeholders
● Advanced coding skills
● Ability to support the development of accessible prototypes
Preferred Qualifications:
● Comfortable using various forms of assistive technology during development and/or
testing
● General understanding of government operations, rules, and regulations
● Previous experience working within the Veterans Affairs ecosystem/landscape or with
VFS teams
● Experience validating with tools VA.gov uses for accessibility testing, such as automated
(aXe, Lighthouse, WAVE, etc.) and manual (JAWS, VoiceOver, NVDA, etc.) testing,
including on-device mobile testing (VoiceOver on iPhones, TalkBack on Android).
● IAAP Certification, CPACC Certification, and/or WAS Certification