Ask HN: How to get an accessibility tester job as a blind programmer?
So, HN, who wants their accessibility tested for their website or apps for blind people or low-vision people?
So, HN, who wants their accessibility tested for their website or apps for blind people or low-vision people?
I am definitely interesting in talking, you can apply as a tester here: https://www.olark.com/ada-accessible-live-chat
And you can ping me personally on Linkedin if you want to chat more. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/bencongleton)
We work with both individuals often as contractors, and agencies as well.
You might want to talk to the folks at lighthouse SF, they do consulting for a lot of tech companies, and have a matching program, I am actually going to be at their offices Thursday, so I can follow up with best way to get in touch, but I'd assume the emails on the below link will get you what you need. https://lighthouse-sf.org/programs/access-technology/
And we've also worked with Fable who manages engagements like what you are looking for: https://makeitfable.com/community/
A professional audit of our product would result in a report of exactly which rules we need to address, along with suggestions for possible changes. I would use this to satisfy the accessibility portion of our contracts. So an accessibility expert is, among other things, a compliance officer who provides credible proof that a company is actively respecting the ADA.
I’m also interested in connecting to see if there’s any opportunity with the projects that come my way. I’d love to keep in touch. Cheers!
Anyways, I'm rambling on, but I always felt like this is something that would be valuable and also struggled with connecting the right pieces to make it happen.
If you're into web development, too, or maybe even just Notion could work, would be a potential indie project, too — a "hand-crafted job site / market place" of accessibility services / experts."
She is a highly experienced blind researcher & a co-founder of NewHaptics, a tactile display startup (https://www.newhaptics.com/).
Even if you want to focus on accessibility testing rather than hardware, Dr. O'Modhrain may be able to connect you with useful guidance. I would also mention your programming experience in case NewHaptics is looking for someone to help with testing hardware, firmware, or drivers.
> If the group is at least somewhat big, chances are they'd have been approached by companies before
The approaching took place in the past, so I'm not sure I follow why using "is" makes anything present tense other than the conditional clause? The group must be "at least somewhat big" in the present for the conditional clause to be true, and the main clause is somewhat separate.
The expansion of "they'll have been" is "they will have been", which sounds perfectly fine.
In my mind the expansion of the original sentence would be, "If the group is at least somewhat big, chances are they would have had been approached by companies before". In spoken communication you would likely drop that "had", but it's also perfectly normal to contract it as OP did. But in written form I think it's too much of a stretch to replace "would have ha" with an apostrophe.
Post it everywhere. LinkedIn, Reddit, your blog.
Start every post saying your looking for work.
This is a service that people would use, and because you're a stake-holding user it makes it much more valuable than one of those companies that runs an accessibility tool and summarizes the results.
Having worked for a software consulting company that's built accessible software in the past, your testing service offering would be valuable but probably not something that a full-time position would have been created for.
Hopefully my delivery there sounded good on your end, I have no helpful advice but best of luck!
I used to work with a lot of financial services companies, and having a skilled programmer who is also a screen reader user and could help us really understand if our accessible interfaces were helpful and not just checking boxes would have been huge.
I was on various UI and platform teams, and across a large software organization I think we had one developer with low vision, so he helped us make sure that everything was able to scale properly, and another with limited dexterity who helped us validate keyboard accessibility, but no screen reader users.
A lot of banks are Java shops and have teams that are dedicated to accessibility, but pay huge amounts to 3rd parties like Deque to help them test and verify Accessibility (a11y) and provide training for their teams.
Most of the Accessibility work happens in the front end, but I’m sure there’s room somewhere for a blind Java programmer - especially if you learn more about a11y and the front end.
You might also want to look into companies like Deque who are promoting a11y and helping other companies build more accessible interfaces.
Most UI developers have picked up tidbits here and there about accessibility. You can get pretty far by honoring semantic html and you learn other things through reading, receiving code feedback etc.
But I don't know anybody who tests their code rigorously using the same tools that an actual blind person would use. I understand sighted workflows, but not blind ones. We strive for 100% accessibility but everybody only knows what they know.
I think that you could very easily establish yourself as the a11y guy and make money through several routes including
- auditing websites for a11y - training staff - offering paid online content / courses - independently auditing websites and using your results to sell them in fixing it or training staff
Obviously the trick of this is that you have to have some kind of track record as the a11y guy. Let me tell you I would read the heck out of a blog written by a blind developer talking about good and bad websites that he has to interact with. I would absolutely watch YouTube videos about it. And if you reached out to a business and told them "hey, your website is unusable for blind people, but I can help fix it for $___", I think that many of them would take it seriously.
I will make a video describing all the programs I use daily to write code as a blind programmer in YouTube channel.
When I looked into hiring someone for a company directly, I was told that because of HIPAA laws you cannot advertise „we want to hire blind programmer“.
Another thought is that for one of the projects I had the accessibility requirement came from the UK government. It was a project being used in a public service department and it was a requirement for them that every bit of software they purchased was accessible. If you're in the UK you may find the public sector is a good place the look.
A few years ago I worked for this company as an Accessibility Analyst alongside many blind programmers who provided expert perspectives on the websites and apps the company was contracted to remediate. It sounds like what you are looking for. Last I knew, they had multiple office locations and some remote contractors. They would probably be delighted to work out a remote/hybrid arrangement. Good luck!
I started in education then migrated to tech with accessibility testing and now currently work as an accessibility analyst at Google. Would love to connect.
How can one contact you?
So, thank you for suggesting advocacy route: that is really a good idea. I have to start that, maybe there'll some opportunities there. Thanks!
I know a blind person who apparently never heard about anything of these. Do you know some good intros?
It might be outweighted by that you are good with the tools though.
It wouldn’t be a very good test if they weren’t first provided with the expected outcome…
One other fast food company that has a really good accessibility (at least in iOS) is Mcdonallds, every menu item is described extensively, and I could order anything blindfolded. Hey, Chipotle, follow McDonald's path and Apple, and make your app accessible, otherwise some blind guy will sue you in a federal court for not offering accessible shop for your restaurants.
Most MVPs do not consider accessibility.
Hopefully one the comments yields to an offer.