Starting a Career in Digital Accessibility

Join Natalie Garza and Natalie MacLees for the 21st episode of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast, where they delve into the realm of digital accessibility careers. They clarify the distinction between digital and physical accessibility, explore various roles within digital accessibility, and provide advice on how to start a career in the field. From the absence of formal education paths to the importance of continuous learning and certification, they cover it all. Also, get tips on resources and courses to enhance your knowledge and skills in digital accessibility.

Natalie Garza: Hello everybody, and welcome to the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast. This is episode 21. I’m Natalie Garza, one of the co-hosts, and with me today is,

Natalie MacLees: Natalie MacLees, another co-host.

Natalie Garza: and she is actually an accessibility expert here to answer all our burning questions. In this episode, we’re gonna talk about advice and how to start a career in digital accessibility. But before we dive into that, do you wanna make it clear the difference between digital accessibility and physical accessibility jobs?

Natalie MacLees: Yeah, so we’re gonna talk about only digital accessibility today, but of course, there are lots of ways to work in accessibility, and a lot of people will have jobs working in the physical world. So helping to make buildings accessible, museums accessible, art exhibits, all, different kinds of things where people need to go and be in a physical space, you know, concert venues, things like that.

So there is a lot of work to do in the world of accessibility that is not necessarily online and what we’re gonna talk about today, because what, what I specialize in, what I do for a living is digital accessibility and very specifically web accessibility.

And even within the digital accessibility space, there’s a lot of different things that that can mean because there’s mobile devices and mobile apps and websites and all different kinds of things like that. Accessible documents, et cetera. So we’re gonna mostly focus on web accessibility today.

Natalie Garza: Yeah, and not even to count like the digital accessibility jobs with just like assistive technology devices or tools.

Natalie MacLees: Yeah, I recently met somebody at an event who had had a job at one point, at a university where it was their job to go around and install assistive technology for the students who needed it, whether that was software or hardware. That was that was their job. They just went around and installed refreshable braille displays and screen reader software and those kinds of things, to support the students at the university.

Natalie Garza: Right. Yeah. So all kinds of digital accessibility jobs and just a small subset of the whole accessibility space.

Natalie MacLees: Yeah.

Natalie Garza: What is it like to work in digital accessibility?

Natalie MacLees: It can look like a whole bunch of different things. There’s not, it’s not a single kind of monolithic field where everybody’s job looks the same.

So that could look like a lot of different things. You could be a developer who’s building websites. You could be a designer who’s designing websites, applications, or user experience. You could be an auditor or a tester who’s testing websites, mobile apps, or any other kind of product for accessibility. You could be a consultant who’s advising people on how to be accessible or how to make their products more accessible.

So there are l...