Accessibility Specialist - London

Who we are

SPRINGER NATURE

Springer Nature employs 10,000 people in over 50 markets, and is home to some of the best-known names in research, educational and professional publishing. Working at the heart of a changing industry, we are always looking for great people who care about delivering quality to our customers and the communities we work alongside. In return, we provide opportunities to learn from some of the best in the business, with a culture that encourages curiosity and empowers people to find solutions and act on their instincts.

We value the diversity of our teams and work to build an inclusive culture, where people are treated fairly and can bring their differences to work and thrive. We empower our colleagues and value their diverse perspectives as we strive to attract, nurture and develop the very best talent.

Springer Nature was awarded Diversity Team of the Year at the 2022 British Diversity Awards. Find out more about our DEI work here. If you have any access needs related to disability,

neurodivergence, or other condition, please contact our recruitment team so we can make all necessary accommodations.

Who we are looking for

We’re (constantly) increasing our accessibility, and we’re looking for people who want to help turn Springer Nature into the publisher of choice for disabled people.

• The work is interesting and meaningful.

• Our culture is collaborative and friendly.

• We encourage and support growth, both personal and professional.

This is a terrific opportunity for friendly, inquisitive people who want to get involved in our work, who love to learn, who will embrace and develop our culture, and help keep Springer Nature a place where people and ideas can thrive. 

Having a good command of English is important; collaboration is important in our day to day work, so being able to communicate your ideas and understand others’ is key.

We are intentionally looking to create teams that are diverse and inclusive. We want every member of our teams to contribute to our common goals while respecting each other's skills, knowledge and needs. 

The team and department

Accessibility Enablement is a specialist function that embeds a continually growing awareness of disability and accessibility, and that oversees work across the company.

The team provides support, consultancy, and tooling, and uses emotional intelligence and a wide range of skills to collaborate with people from other disciplines, and ensure that colleagues from across the business have the support to do their jobs to the best of their abilities.

The role

We’re looking for an accessibility specialist. Your background could be in frontend development, UXD, QA, accessibility testing, or elsewhere. You could also have an interest in accessibility without a formal background in any of these disciplines.

You must have demonstrable experience leading change, ideally in medium to large-sized organisations. A background in publishing is desirable, but not required.

You will be consulting with many people, to ensure that they - and their teams - are put on a path of continuous improvement.

The work is varied and will incorporate everything from performing audits, to supporting others’ as they seek to improve accessibility, to enabling processes that institute an ever-growing understanding of disability.

We are a large organisation with all that entails - complex technology and organisational structures, and ever-mutating challenges. In order to succeed you must relish that challenge. You must be able to demonstrate an ability to cause change without an official mandate to do so (even though this role comes with a mandate to cause change). Empathy, emotional intelligence, and an ability to tailor your approach and your messaging to suit the situation, are critical attributes.

The job is based in London and you will work remotely at times with colleagues across the world. We may ask you to travel occasionally, but we won’t require it of you.

What you’ll be doing

Within 3 months

• Begin to develop an understanding of, and harmony with, the constraints, goals, and strategy of Accessibility Enablement.

• Begin to gain an understanding of how Accessibility Enablement integrates & engages with the wider business.

• Begin to aid in the interpretation and prioritisation of accessibility requirements.

• Regularly discuss work within Accessibility Enablement, contributing to discussions and meetings (held virtually).

• With some supervision, work with the team to identify and complete tasks related to your key area(s) of technical expertise.

• Get to know and begin to build good working relationships with a variety of teams around the business.

• With guidance, begin to support teams as they build accessible products.

• With guidance, contribute to meetings & discussions with groups from around the business to gain understanding of how we integrate & engage with them.

• Demonstrate effective contributions to meetings & discussions, doing so with empathy, confidence, and quietude.

Within 6 months

• Gain a comprehensive understanding of, and harmony with, the constraints, goals, and strategy of Accessibility Enablement.

• Grow your understanding of how Accessibility Enablement integrates & engages with the wider business. Support groups as they take ownership of accessibility work.

• Begin to support business areas in the normalised reporting of accessibility work. 

• Continue to develop relationships with a variety of teams around the business.

• Begin to train product teams to accurately assess the accessibility of their own work.

• With some supervision, be able to verify the accuracy of product teams’ statements about their products’ accessibility, and identify gaps.

• Advocate for techniques outlined in the Frontend Playbook (such as progressive enhancement and accessibility).

Within 12 months

• Contribute to documentation (including the Frontend Playbook where beneficial), in order to aid the rest of the business by documenting beneficial techniques related to accessibility.

• Continue to develop Accessibility Enablement’s reputation as an expert source for accessibility matters.

• Become familiar with the frontend component & design system.

• Work with product teams to produce ACRs for key products.

• Work with procurement teams and 3rd party vendors to ensure external software technology meets our accessibility standards.

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