Accessibility Roles

Table of contents

  1. Distribution of Responsibility
    1. Achieving a Balance
    2. Larger vs. Smaller Teams
    3. An Integrated Approach
  2. Institutional vs. Individual Roles
    1. Institutional Roles
  3. Administration’s Responsibilities
    1. Defining Individual Roles
  4. List of Individual Roles

Distribution of Responsibility

Distribute responsibility for accessibility throughout the organization in a sensible and fair way. Aim to achieve a balance both horizontally and vertically.

Achieving a Balance

Achieving that balance does not mean that each individual is equally responsible for ensuring the accessibility of an organization’s output. While this could be true in some institutions, for others; one or several point people take primary responsibility for a digital library’s accessibility.

Delegate responsibility in accessibility policies by role or job class, rather than to an individual. Use these categories of responsibility as a starting point, and define individual assignments and responsibilities by project to meet organizational needs.

Larger vs. Smaller Teams

For larger teams, accessibility specialists should shape and guide accessibility work. Involve nonspecialist project participants whenever possible. Have administrators supply resources, support, and promote this work.

For smaller teams, in which a single individual or small group is responsible for accessibility work, give the individual(s) adequate resources; and the appropriate authority to get the support they need.

An Integrated Approach

Accessibility is an integrated task, spanning content creation, product development, and post-launch maintenance. It is not a piece of assessment work done after the creation and development phases.

A truly integrated accessibility process builds enforcement into each phase of work so that the cost of creating and maintaining an accessible digital product is shared and distributed. Spreading the cost of integrating best practices throughout the digital library lifecycle reduces cost and implementation barriers during the post-development phase of a project.

Institutional vs. Individual Roles

While it’s important to take an individual interest in accessibility and to look for ways to enhance accessibility through individual effort, institutions must have a strong commitment to accessibility if individual efforts are to succeed.

Institutional Roles

Different institutions have different levels of commitment to accessibility in effort, energy, expense, and enforcement. In the absence of a firm organizational commitment to this work, an accessibility policy can help fill the gap. It generates interest, cements the work’s professional worth within an organization, and clearly defines responsibilities.

Administration’s Responsibilities

Accessibility needs to be a formal institutional priority, through a strategic plan or a statement of values. The duty of enforcement should rest on those with the greatest institutional power, as in the following policies:

Defining Individual Roles

Organizations can help staff understand their individual responsibilities in accessibility and how to connect with other staff by defining roles and responsibilities.

  • Assign accessibility point person(s). Provide this individual with both the authority and the resources necessary to advocate for accessible digital initiatives.
  • Use project management tools, such as a responsibility matrix, to clarify and embed accessibility experts or advocates at all levels of an organization, or in multiple roles within a project team.

List of Individual Roles

The following is a list of roles that participants may have in accessibility-focused projects. These can be integrated into policies as needed. They can also be used to define and conceptualize the discrete tasks that may be integrated into policy workflows. Note that only some roles may participate in some projects, and that one participant can assume multiple roles simultaneously. Many different groups are working on codifying these roles. One example of this work that is still in development is the ARRM Success Criteria Matrix, in particular its role definitions.

  • Head of institution
    Supports and communicates the importance of digital accessibility institution-wide, through policy and staffing structures that advance accessibility work across the institution.
  • Library department head or senior administrator
    Commits budgetary resources and communicates importance of digital accessibility department-wide, through policy and staffing structures that support accessibility work across the library’s project portfolio. Responsible for implementing accessibility-friendly policy and adequately resourcing project teams so that accessibility work is possible. Sometimes this role is also a major initiator of a project or stakeholder and can weigh in or have high-level review of work that takes place within the department.
  • Product or Project manager
    Coordinates long term product or process maintenance and monitors the long-term success of accessibility work. This position can be a major stakeholder for a product or project.It is responsible for guiding overall progress of the project, forming project teams, building accessibility tasks into the project plan, and assigning the work to applicable team members. It could include the accessibility point person role as well. Sometimes this role is also a major stakeholder and can weigh in or review work that takes place within a project team.
  • Functional managers
    Functional managers, such as technical leads or user-experience (UX) managers, lead, organize, and provide planning for staff in a particular functional area, such as the design or development of library systems or websites. They are responsible for ensuring that staff are properly trained and aware of accessibility considerations within their work area, and that these considerations are built into the workflow.
  • Accessibility point person
    Ensures accessible practices across the project. Researches and consults on accessibility topics.
  • Collection curator or project sponsor for digitization work
    Initiates requests for digitization of collections or other physical content owned or managed by an institution. This role is a major stakeholder in digitization projects and can review or specify content-based requirements for the work and approve the quality of the digitization work conducted.
  • Digitization technician or specialist
    Coordinates or conducts tasks within a digitization project. This may include working with vendors who provide services within the overall digitization workflow and ensuring that they take accessibility standards into consideration. If the specialists are conducting the hands-on digitization work themselves, they ensure that accessibility standards are configured into their work from the start of the project.
  • UX specialist
    Attends to “user experience” (UX), including for staff with disabilities. Outlines the specification, information architecture, and general layout of all interactions and features in a system or website project. Handles the usability testing. Can take on the role of accessibility point person when that role isn’t filled.
  • Technical developer
    Executes technical work underlying the project or product. This role is aware of how accessibility standards can be integrated into the coding and technical development of a project.
  • Metadata consultant or lead
    Attends to metadata considerations; consults on and/or implements accessible metadata practices.
  • Visual designer
    Attends to visual, informational, and structural design of the product, including the visual design of accessible features and conveying to developers the accessibility interactions with annotated wireframes.
  • Content author
    Writes content that aligns with accessibility and UX best practices.