Senior Web Software Developer

 SECTION 2.0  General Requirements Summary

2.1.  Minimum of two years of experience in accessibility identification and resolution.

2.2.  Minimum of six months of successful experience in project management

2.3.  Experience with technical systems and industry standards. e.g., implementation and usage.

2.4.  Experience following WCAG AA 2.1 (2,0 and/or 2.2) standards.

2.5.  Detailed analytical and problem-solving abilities.

2.6.  Experienced in manual and tool testing.

2.7.  Strong written and verbal communication skills including technical writing skills.

2.8.    Ability to form strong relationships with all stakeholders to facilitate transparent and frequent communication.

2.9.    Ability to maintain strong relationships while sometimes delivering unwelcome directions, strong interpersonal skills.

2.10. Practical application ability with Microsoft Office and Visio.

2.11. Ability to co-exist in a standard office environment.

2.12. Ability to work remotely.

2.13. The ability to pass a background check.

Preferred:

·       Experience working within the education environment, either at a district or school.

·       Experience working as a developer on a development team within a technology department or division.

SECTION 3.0                General Requirements

3.1.     The department’s Contract Project Manager for this project is the Supervisor of the Project Management Office, Diane Myskiw.  Day-to-day instruction and task assignments will be led by the Digital Accessibility Manager.

3.2.     The Contractor shall report to the Supervisor of the Project Management Office and shall work closely and collaboratively with Department’s Digital Accessibility Manager of the Operations Office to discuss suggestions or issues as they occur and incorporate suggestions or guidance from the Department while performing the work described within this Statement of Work and the purchase order.

3.3.     For this role, applicants will work remotely.  Applicants may reside in states outside of the state of Colorado.  However, the Mountain Standard Time (MST) zone is preferred.

3.3.1.       While working remotely at locations other than CDE’s office, CDE will provide the contractor with virtual access to the data and systems necessary for completion of the Work.

3.3.2.       The department does not provide computer equipment. 

3.4.     The contractor shall coordinate and prioritize all work to ensure that all deliverables and deadlines are met.

3.5.     The contractor shall employ an internal quality control process to ensure that all deliverables are complete, accurate, easy to understand, and of high quality.

3.6.     The contractor shall provide deliverables that, at a minimum, are responsive to the specific requirements, organized into a logical order, contain no spelling or grammatical errors, formatted uniformly, and contain accurate information and correct calculations.

3.7.     The contractor shall submit each deliverable to the Digital Accessibility Manager for review and approval.

3.8.     The contractor shall provide weekly status updates on the progress of this work.  Detail the completed tasks, the tasks currently being worked and those that are to be worked next.  Include any roadblocks, potential risks, and mitigation strategies.

3.9.     The contractor shall retain all work papers generated for reference throughout the duration of the project and project acceptance.

3.10.  The contractor shall participate in the review and revision process, until the Department provides written acceptance of a deliverable.

3.11.  The contractor shall provide copies of any supporting documentation to the Department upon request of the Department and without charge.

3.12.  The contractor shall respond to all telephone calls, voice- mails and e-mail inquiries from the Department within one (1) business day.

3.13.  The Contractor shall enable all Contractor staff to exchange documents and electronic files with the Department staff in formats compatible with the Department’s systems.  The Department currently uses Microsoft Office 365 for PC.

3.14.  Contractor shall perform all work in accordance with all applicable federal and state statutes, regulations, and rules, as now and hereafter amended.

3.15.  Contractor may be privy to internal Department policy discussions, contractual issues, financial information, or other confidential Department information.  Contractor shall also treat any such information as confidential.

3.16.  All work shall meet Department-approved format and content requirements.

3.17.  Contractor shall have and maintain all hardware, software, and interfaces necessary to access the Department’s systems without requiring any modification to the Department’s systems.  Contractor shall follow all Department policies, processes, and procedures necessary to gain access to the Department’s systems.

SECTION 4.0  PROJECT REQUIREMENTS

This position will under the leadership, and in conjunction with, the digital accessibility manager be responsible for developing and implementing a strategy to address current digital accessibility issues and ensuring that accessibility is integrated into all future digital resources for the CDE. This role will work proactively to mitigate accessibility issues within the CDE by providing effective support and training to staff as well as performing the work to make objects accessible.

The work of this role will be focused on ensuring that CDE is prepared for and continually meeting the requirements of HB21-1110.   This includes but is not limited to the following areas:

·       Website and digital resources,

·       Technical applications,

·       Training of Staff,

·       Policy creation and adoption,

·       Digital content documents (PDFs, word documents, excel spreadsheets, power point presentations, process flow documents, etc.

HB21-1121 Designates the Office of Information Technology (OIT) the lead agency for this statewide effort.  CDE will partner with OIT to follow their recommendations and to implement their tool selections and policies.  It will also be critical to form relationships with other state agencies to leverage the solutions they have developed.    

Although the process is simple to explain, it will be extremely complex to fully execute. A high-level description of the steps to follow for each object type:

1.     Each agency will take inventory of their digital documents, websites, and applications.

2.     The Office of Information Technology (OIT) will provide recommendations for how to make objects accessible.

3.     Agencies will develop policies (or guidelines) or adopt OIT policies for making objects accessible.

4.     Based on OIT recommendations, tools will be selected to facilitate the work of accessibility.

5.     Training will be provided to the division and unit personnel.

6.     The people within the divisions and units within each state agency will do the bulk of the work to make objects accessible. The individual in this role will provide support and actively make objects accessible.  

7.     Each agency will:

·       Periodically perform an audit of objects for accessibility compliance.

·       Field, track, and manage reported violations and resulting compliance and/or penalty of reported violations.

·       Coordinate with other divisions and agencies throughout.

This individual will perform the following duties:

Communication

·       Quickly form strong relationships and partnerships within an organization as well as with external organizations.  (ex. Digital Accessibility Manager, the CDE Accessibility Champions, the representatives of OIT and other state agencies along with CDE employees and contract staff)

·       Attend, digest, and translate OIT directions into application and implementation at CDE.

·       Attend OIT events including but not limited to:

o   OIT workshops,

o   Office hours,

o   Problem solving workshops, and

o   Training

·       Prepare and deliver clear and concise information using all modes of communication.

·       Maintain a shared site where tools, training, policies, and guidance are available.

·       Collaborate with legal representation regarding accessibility violations.

·       Freely share information with other agencies, other states and internally at CDE.

·       Work with the Chief of Staff, Human Resources, and Policy team to adopt or create, review, and amend policies for CDE use. Communicate and facilitate adoption of new policies.

Knowledge and Experience in Accessibility

·       Serve as the subject matter expert (SME) on all things accessible.

·       Know, understand, and be able to apply the web accessibility standards (WCAG).

·       Know, understand, and be able to apply federal laws and standards (Section 508 and related laws/standards).

·       Perform research and maintain in-depth Knowledge of trends in accessibility, particularly within state governments, and changes to laws and guidance, including:

o   Know, understand, and be able to apply the Colorado’s accessibility laws (HB21-1110) as well as guidance, directives, and recommendations from OIT.

·       Adopt standard language from accessibility experts for consistency across all content. Develop and use language standards for communication where none are provided/available.

·       Understand accessibility compliance vs. accommodations.

·       Identify accessibility issues, identify the tools to address issues and perform the work to correct accessibility issues,

·       Know or learn new tools, implement those tools, and train others to use them.

·       Troubleshoot, report and track issues.

·       Coordinate and collaborate with developers of websites, reports, and documents (any digital content creation) to ensure new development includes accessibility compliance, In other words, create accessibility compliant objects from inception.    

·       Design, execute and guide others on the testing strategy.

·       Manage manual and tool testing of all CDE applications, CDE websites (internal and external), and documents, images, videos, and other content to identify and remediate pages, content and features that fail to meet accessibility standards or best practices. 

·       Test and support accessibility testing, analyze object types, propose, and implement remediation solutions. Resolve any disputes about testing and remediation.

·       Perform manual testing and build reusable test automation for future use, when possible.

·       Create and maintain accessibility workflows. 

·       Ensure documents, images, videos, and other content hosted on the CDE websites (or are shared internally or externally through any method (email, shared files, SharePoint, meeting handouts, etc.)), meet accessibility standards. 

·       Provide guidance and general oversight of the SiteImprove (provided by OIT) tool and other testing and remediation tools.

·       Provide training to staff to ensure they understand the importance of accessibility and ways to incorporate accessibility into the workplace. 

·       Provide training and assistance to all digital web editors, report developers and content contributors within the CDE to ensure they know how to create content that meets accessibility standards. 

Project Management

·       Create detailed project plan(s) and other project management artifacts to support the accessibility project.

·       Create documents to track and communicate progress.

·       Create and maintain an accessibility objects inventory.

·       Develop a method for tracking issues reported by the testing/remediation team members including:

o   Diagnosing, documenting, and resolving reported issues.

o   Communicating solutions with the testing/remediation team members.

·       Create and distribute accessibility documentation. This may include but is not limited to, accessibility training, policies, guidelines, tools, issues, processes, coordination efforts, etc.

·       Other duties as assigned.

SECTION 5.0     CONFIDENTIALITY AND PROTECTION OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION

5.1.          Contractor shall augment existing and include additional processes and controls as necessary to ensure data privacy and security on assigned projects.

6.2.         No additional costs will be reimbursed.

Regards

Karthika