I am an educator who chose to become an accessibility analyst after noticing that much of the digital materials my students were expected to access for learning are not accessible or user friendly. I have first-hand experience as a person with a visual impairment, and understand how it feels to feel excluded from society because someone didn’t know how to make materials accessible to me.
When I was a young child, I attended classes designed to teach students with visual impairments assistive technology skills. I asked the instructor how I could communicate with web developers and explain the struggles I have with webpages. The instructor told me I would have to be a coder, and that no one would hire me for that position because I can’t see. I said, “I don’t believe you, and I will find a way.”
I completed a 16-week accessibility course, and a three-month internship with ABLR works, located in Durham North Carolina, where I learned the necessary skills to become an accessibility analyst, and passed the Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC). During the internship at Ablr Works, I gained hands-on experience with accessibility testing, and participated in professional development. In addition, I completed the five-week Screen Reader User Tester Training program at the Carroll Center for the Blind, located in Massachusetts. During this course, I strengthened my screen reader skills, tested documents and websites using screen readers, and gained experience delivering written, live, and recorded screen reader demonstrations of accessibility defects.
I use a variety of methods to test for accessibility including screen reader user testing, and automated tools to ensure compliance with WCAG 2.2 level AA guidelines. I use JAWS for windows, NVDA on windows, Windows Narrator, Voice Over on iPhone and Mac, and Talk Back on Android. In addition, I have used testing tools such as Accessible Name Digital Inspecter (ANDI), Axe Dev Tools, Axe Auditor to input accessibility errors, and several others. As you can see, I am highly qualified to test documents and websites to make sure they are compliant with the ADA and section 508. To learn more about accessibility testing, please reach out to me.
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