Title: Instructional Designer, Accessibility Architect

Department: IDEA Lab

Campus Location: Arnold/Main Campus

Salary Range: $68,990-$86,237

Work Mode: This position requires some regular in-person presence on campus or at alternative locations, depending on business needs of the office.

Hours Per Week: 40

Work Schedule: 

Position Type: Full-Time Staff,  Exempt

Position Summary

The Instructional Designer, Accessibility Architect is an essential member of the AACC community, promoting an inclusive, welcoming, learning, and working environment. The ideal candidate will support the college community with guidance, coaching, and professional development to create accessible materials, courses, and digital content. Continuous improvement is at the heart of this role as the individual will review and test tools and materials and gather data and research for analysis. This individual will collaborate with instructional designers, developers, faculty, and other stakeholders to integrate accessibility practices throughout campus life. Information and Instructional Technology (IIT) team members must be dedicated to fostering a culture of excellence. Successful candidates will help IIT build our culture by enabling frictionless service, valuing feedback, and embracing continuous improvement and learning. To support this foundation, IIT has established five pillars. These pillars create a collaborative, supportive, and inclusive professional culture. Successful candidates will be skilled technologists who value AACC’s community and people. They will also be empathetic to the challenges faced by our students, faculty, and staff. Our Characteristics of Excellence are the guiding principles of our division, empowering our teams to deliver exceptional results and drive success. Successful candidates will treat people with respect, dignity, and fairness, consistently delivering quality results and following through on commitments and responsibilities. They will cultivate teamwork and collaboration, embrace opportunities for improvement and innovation, and maintain open and honest communication with integrity. Additionally, they will appreciate the value of simple, efficient solutions, recognize the importance of building positive relationships, and respect others' time.

Anne Arundel Community College (AACC) is committed to enriching the educational experience it offers through the diversity of its faculty, administrators, and staff members. The college seeks to recruit and support a broadly diverse team who will contribute to the college's excellence, diversity of viewpoints and experiences, embrace concepts of equity and inclusiveness, and support the equal rights of all people by advancing the understanding and appreciation of differences including age, race, gender, ability, religious convictions, socio-economic status, ethnic heritage, or sexual orientation.

While we appreciate your interest in employment with Anne Arundel Community College, applicants must be currently authorized to work in the U.S. on a full-time basis. Employment-based visa sponsorship (including H-1B sponsorship) is not available for any position.

Pay dates occur on the 7th and 22nd of each month. If those dates fall on a weekend, the pay date occurs on the Friday prior to the 7th and 22nd. As an employee of the college, you are eligible for a comprehensive benefits package.

In the best interest of the College, only individuals who are residents of Maryland or one of the following states will be eligible for employment at the college: Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia or the District of Columbia. The college will annually review this restriction and, if appropriate, expand the list of states of employment eligibility.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

Professional Development, training, consultation, support: · Provide training and guidance to AACC staff and students to develop new technology skills, particularly around digital accessibility. Serve as a high-level training resource to cross-divisional accessibility stakeholders. · Translate accessibility compliance requirements into understandable criteria for faculty and staff. Design, develop, and deliver accessibility training for faculty and staff. Create and maintain accessibility resources and documentation for the college community. · Apply Universal Design for Learning (UDL) methods and learning theories to the design of learner-centered experience, courses and programs, ensuring that educational experiences are digitally accessible and inclusive for all. · Collaborate in the design and development of high-quality online courses and programs, integrating research-based practices in instructional design to create engaging, effective, and accessible learning experiences that meet the diverse needs of all learners.

· Conduct thorough reviews and testing of materials, multimedia, and digital tools to identify and address accessibility barriers. · Conduct accessibility reviews of courses to identify potential accessibility issues and provide solutions. · Coordinate and train staff to conduct testing with assistive technologies. · Perform technical digital accessibility reviews on digital resources and tools. Advise on the selection of digital tools based on evaluation of conformance to digital accessibility standards using documentation such as the VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) and testing.

Continuous Improvement · Identify research, data points and metrics to inform continuous improvement in digital accessibility. · Partner in efforts to map and improve processes that further digital accessibility. · Partner in efforts to evaluate and improve the accessibility of courses and college content. · Collaborate in efforts to gather feedback from users and make necessary adjustments. · Utilize analysis techniques, such as user persona, focus group interviews, and landscape analysis, to identify authentic challenges and develop practical solutions. · Maintain documentation of all accessibility efforts. · Strive to ensure solutions, systems, and content are secure, accessible, inclusive, and compliant with WCAG and other relevant standards. Continuously improve technical skills and knowledge. Document and track issues and requests in the appropriate systems and provide supervisor with timely updates on project progress, status, and issues. Provide training and guidance to AACC staff and students to develop new technology skills. Weekend, evening, and on-call hours may be required as needed.

Required Qualifications:

Master's Degree: Instructional Design, Educational Technology, Assistive Technologies, User Experience Design, or a related field.

Minimum of two years of relevant experience

Deep knowledge of accessibility standards and guidelines, including WCAG, ADA, and Section 508.

Desire to work in a mission-driven, dynamic, team-based environment with a commitment to process improvement.

Proficiency with assistive technologies such as screen readers, captioning tools, and alternative input devices. Ability to employ testing methodologies using tools such as NVDA or JAWs.

Familiarity with Learning Management Systems (LMS) and accessible authoring tools.

Ability to work productively, independently and within a team.

Demonstrated excellent oral and written communication skills with strong interpersonal and presentation skills.

Experience developing and facilitating accessibility-focused training and professional development workshops and consultations.

Experience in leading and managing multiple, complex projects. The ability to schedule, prioritize, and meet varied deadlines across these projects.

Commitment to engagement, equity, and inclusion as it relates to the design of courses and professional development.

Strong critical thinking skills and attention to detail.

Preferred Qualifications:

Experience in higher education.

Experience with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles.

Demonstrated competence in working with learning management systems, such as Canvas.

Experience with managing, extracting, analyzing, and presenting data.

Trusted Tester certification and/or IAAP credentials.