Synertex is looking to hire a 508 Compliance Specialist in support of the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency's Training Directorate in Linthicum Heights, MD.   

Benefits include competitive PTO, 11 Paid Government Holidays, a 401k with 6% match, and a comprehensive list of health care options.

Clearance Required: Active Secret Clearance

The 508 Specialist will be responsible for assessing Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPATs) that are sent to DCSA by software application vendors such as Microsoft, Blackboard, Adobe, and many more. The 508 Specialist will review the vendor-provided VPAT and assess the 36 WCAG requirements using a scoring system provided by DCSA. If the vendor's VPAT identifies items that are not compliant, the 508 Specialist will provide a remediation roadmap to the vendor with timeframes for the remediations to be completed. The 508 Specialist will track remediation completions. Vendors submit requests and VPATs through Service Now tickets. The 508 Specialist will be responsible for responding to the tickets, assessing the VPATs, scoring the VPATs, and providing a remediation roadmap, and advancing the tickets to the proper stages through Service Now.

Important: This position has limited to no hands-on testing of the applications since they are owned by external vendors. There may be occasions when the 508 specialist will receive items for an internal DCSA-owned application called NBIS, which could require testing. But for now, the volume for this type of testing is low. We expect this to evolve over time as NBIS development continues and they release products. The higher volume of work will involve the VPAT assessments and remediation roadmaps.

The position will report 5 days per week in the Linthicum office.

Responsibilities:

1. Collaborate with external vendors and stakeholders to address compliance gaps and recommended fixes according to the WCAG 2.0 and DCSA VPAT Guidelines/Road Map.
2. Strong proficiency in VPAT Assessment and being able to consult with software/product owners on fixing 508 compliance issues.
3. Provide expert 508 guidance to the DCSA VPAT and RRAM Officers on incorporating agency-wide 508 best practices, compliance expectations, and improving workflow to existing processes to enhance vendor software implementation. Conduct agency wide working groups to streamline this effort.
4. Use assistive technology tools (e.g. ANDI, JAWS, JAWS Inspect, NVDA) as it relates to testing software, websites, documentation, and other forms of ICT.
5. Proficient in Service Now ticketing system (recommended).