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Blind and Visually Impaired Community

Full History - 2020 - 06 - 04 - ID#gwswep
10
Accessibility Consultant (self.Blind)
submitted by Broken_Peepers
Is there such a job? I have a couple companies I would very much like to advise how to make their products more accessible.
nkdeck07 3 points 3y ago
Yes! I am not blind or visually impaired but actually grew out the entire accessibility consultant practice at my old web consultancy along side one of my front end developers. There's a pretty decent market for it now ever since Domino's and Target lost their respective cases. Lots of the jobs are available in the government and education sectors. I used to get a few recruiters every year looking for accessibility consultants.

The Perkins School for the Blind actually runs an entire accessibility digital agency ($1)

Edit: It's actually still a bit of my job now. I'm a B2B product manager and a number of our clients have legal requirements so I still do some consulting on our own internal product to hit WCAG 2.0 AA.
CloudyBeep 3 points 3y ago
I know people who are, but they tend to focus on accessibility for various disabilities, not just visual impairment. Most start out by being hired by one company and then having recognition. Because it's generally contract work, it's a bit unstable unless you have other forms of income.

You could take the courses on web accessibility from Deque, then at least having some credentials.
Broken_Peepers [OP] 2 points 3y ago
That's good to know. I'm mostly just curious. I figured there had to be something like it out there.
changeneverhappens 1 points 3y ago
There's a cool company called able docs that makes pdfs and office documents accessible.
Marconius 2 points 3y ago
That's what I do, I'm an accessibility specialist. I work primarily part-time for one company, do a lot of paid testing work work, plus speak at various tech firms and events about the importance of inclusivity and accessibility. While a good majority of what I do stems around blind and VI accessible tech, I make sure I drive home the ideals of empathetic design for people with all manner of disabilities and other access barriers when using a product, site, or app.
Broken_Peepers [OP] 1 points 3y ago
That'd be pretty cool to get into. I have several speakers from a company called Sonos, and they recently changed from physical to touch controls. I love their products, and would hate to see them become less accessible. However, the speakers are primarily designed to be controlled by phone and app.
cyclops32 1 points 3y ago
I work for a QA testing organisation, and I can tell you, their is such a job, however as others have said, it's not just blindness, but all manner of disabilities.
I also help test apps and websites for a local college, as their are students and staff with disabilities.
There has been a big jump on the focus of accessibility since 2015 or 2016, and it doesn't show any sign of stopping. The college I work for has passed a new policy that all software must be at least partly accessible, to insure that everyone who needs to use it can do so. Be it staff or students.
here_comes_thesun 1 points 3y ago
My university has a similar job. It's a person who helps get students what they require accesibility wise for school.
VeronW 1 points 3y ago
I work at the dutch accessibility foundation and i can tell you. There is such a job.
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