Accessible Design Officer

Help us make the West Midlands more accessible for everyone.

This is a brand-new role with the opportunity to make a real and lasting difference to how people across the West Midlands experience and access our services, information and campaigns.

As our Digital Accessibility Specialist, you’ll be the organisation’s accessibility champion for communications and digital services, providing expert advice and guidance across Communications and the wider WMCA. You’ll help us go beyond simply meeting our legal obligations, ensuring our digital and offline communications are accessible, inclusive and designed with the widest possible audience in mind. Working across multidisciplinary teams, you’ll shape accessibility best practice across our channels – from websites, social media and digital content to marketing campaigns, visual design and offline communications.

A key part of the role will be your expertise in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). You’ll translate complex technical standards and accessibility regulations into practical, meaningful guidance, helping colleagues and suppliers understand what good accessibility looks like in practice. You’ll also provide expert review and challenge of digital, design and communications outputs, ensuring they work for as many people as possible while contributing to major programmes and projects, including bus franchising, our websites and engagement activity.

This is a specialist role with significant influence and genuine scope to make it your own. We’re looking for someone with strong knowledge of accessibility regulations, a deep understanding of user needs and the empathy to consider the experiences of people with different accessibility requirements.

What you will be doing

• Lead development and implementation of an accessibility strategy for the organisation’s communications
• Regularly share knowledge on accessibility best practice, including updates to WCAG
• Advocate for disabled people with communications and digital projects
• Provide informal mentorship on accessibility best practice to Designers and other Communications specialist teams
• Shape and manage organisational wide accessibility training
• Work with People and Culture services to ensure recruitment templates, adverts and application processes are accessible and engaging
• Build test plans, considering automated and manual testing methodologies, to audit communications outputs and digital experiences for accessibility compliance
• Define and manage a regular audit schedule for the WMCA digital estate
• Work with Designers to help shape user research activity, ensuring we meet the real needs of our residents and partners
• Use quality assurance tools (such as Acquia Web Governance) to identify and action issues on owned websites
• Procure and manage relationships with external digital accessibility auditors

What’s essential

• Demonstratable experience in leading automated and manual testing using assistive technologies
• Previous experience in an accessibility focused role, or able to demonstrate broad lived experience and understanding
• Expert knowledge of existing and emerging accessibility guidelines and standards, particularly WCAG
• Understanding of web technologies – HTML, CSS, JavaScript, WAI-ARIA
• Ability to manage projects with competing deadlines
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Ability to positively influence stakeholders of all levels
• Knowledge of testing with a range of assistive technologies, such as screen readers, speech recognition and magnification tools

Location.

The location for this role is 16 Summer Lane with at least 2 days a week spent in the office, Wednesday's and Thursday's.

How to apply.

Applying for a role with WMCA is straightforward. Follow these steps to get started.

Please note, we reserve the right to close any vacancy from further submissions when we have received sufficient applications from which to make a shortlist. Please apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.

Anonymised Applications.

Your uploaded CV won’t be visible after submission. Our process is anonymised, and only the information in your profile is used for shortlisting. Be thorough in each section. It’s your chance to showcase your skills and experience.

Using Artificial Intelligence (AI)

We cannot stop anyone from using AI to help write application content. Used right, it can be a great tool. If you choose to use AI, then use it as a helper rather than relying on it wholly to write your application.

Applications that rely too heavily on AI may be rejected during shortlisting. For help on how to write a supporting statement, please visit the FAQs section of our careers site.

Reasonable adjustments.

If you have an accessibility need, disability, or condition that means you might require changes to the application or recruitment process, please get in touch with our Recruitment Team ([email removed]).

Salary and benefits.

We advertise salary ranges, with new appointments typically starting at the lowest salary point. In exceptional cases, the salary point may be adjusted to secure the best candidate. This approach allows for potential year-on-year salary increases, offering progression and appropriate rewards to employees. Requests for salaries above the maximum advertised range will not be considered.

We offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes:

• Local Government Pension Scheme (one of the most generous pension schemes in the UK).
• Shared Cost Additional Voluntary Contribution scheme where you can build an additional pot of money alongside your pension with contributions exempt from Income Tax and National Insurance contributions (NICs).
• 28 days paid annual leave (with an option to purchase more) + Statutory days.
• EV car benefit scheme
• Healthcare plans.
• Discounted gym membership, will writing, and mortgage advice.
• An option to buy a bicycle, including e-bikes and adapted pedal cycles, at a discounted rate.
• 3 days of paid leave each year to volunteer.
• Interest-free financing through SmartTech to buy the latest technology
• Discounted shopping with over 2,000 big-name retailers, and more. You can now also obtain a Costco membership through the WMCA.
• Boundless unlocks unlimited entry to top-rated UK attractions and loads of extra benefits and discounts.
• Eye Care Scheme, offering a free eye test and a financial contribution towards your glasses.

For more information, please visit the benefits page on our career site.

Why join WMCA?

WMCA is laser-focused on improving the West Midlands, bringing economic growth, jobs, homes, and better journeys to the region. We target local needs where it matters most, ensuring e