Information Technology Leader

Job Summary

Information Technology (IT) Leaders oversee the technology infrastructure, systems, and services that support teaching, learning, and school operations. They establish and maintain reliable, secure, and accessible technology environments for students, educators, staff, families, and others with disabilities. By integrating accessibility throughout technology planning, evaluation, procurement, implementation, and lifecycle management, IT Leaders support accessible technology use across the school or district and coordinate with appropriate personnel to identify and address accessibility barriers.

Job Essential Accessibility Duties and Responsibilities

Responsibilities related to accessibility.

• Establish accessibility requirements for technology systems, digital services, and infrastructure for the school/district.
• Incorporate technical accessibility requirements and evidence into technology evaluation, procurement, contracting, renewal, and vendor management processes.
• Incorporate accessibility considerations into the configuration, integration, deployment, maintenance, and updating of technology systems and services.
• Establish and maintain technology support processes that effectively address accessibility-related issues affecting students, educators, staff, families, and other users with disabilities.
• Establish processes for monitoring and improving the accessibility of enterprise technologies, learning platforms, administrative systems, and other technology services.
• Develop and maintain processes for identifying, reporting, tracking, and resolving technology accessibility barriers.
• Collaborate with special education and assistive technology personnel to support interoperability and compatibility between school- or district-provided hardware, software, systems, and students’ assistive technologies.
• Collaborate with leaders in administration, educational technology, assistive technology, curriculum, special education, and other relevant areas to coordinate accessible technology planning, implementation, support, and barrier resolution.
• Translate accessibility policies and expectations into actionable requirements for technology systems, digital services, infrastructure, and support.
• Communicate and escalate significant accessibility risks, unresolved barriers, and technology limitations to appropriate school or district leadership to support informed decision-making and timely response.
• Communicate digital accessibility requirements, responsibilities, and practices to technology staff, vendors, and other relevant school or district partners and provide guidance needed for implementation.

Required Qualifications

Minimum requirements to perform the job:

• Knowledge of digital accessibility principles and common technology barriers experienced by individuals with disabilities.
• Knowledge of accessibility-related requirements and standards relevant to K-12 technology environments, including ADA Title II and WCAG.
• Working knowledge of how digital accessibility requirements and standards apply to enterprise technologies, digital services, websites and web applications, platforms, and other technology systems.
• Experience managing enterprise technology systems, infrastructure services, or IT operations within educational or similarly complex organizational environments.
• Demonstrated experience incorporating accessibility requirements into technology planning, evaluation, procurement, implementation, or lifecycle management.
• Working knowledge of common types of assistive technology and accessibility features and how they interact with hardware, software, operating systems, platforms, and digital services.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate and collaborate with technical and non-technical personnel, including translating technical accessibility issues for different audiences.
• Knowledge of methods for evaluating digital accessibility, including automated, manual, and assistive technology-based approaches, and the strengths and limitations of each.

Preferred Qualifications

List nice-to-have skills or experience:

• Advanced professional learning, certification, or demonstrated expertise in digital accessibility or accessible technology.
• Experience leading organizational accessibility initiatives, accessibility programs, or technology modernization efforts that incorporate accessibility.
• Experience reviewing and interpreting Accessibility Conformance Reports (ACRs), including those based on the VPAT, and other vendor accessibility documentation or evidence.
• Experience supporting digital accessibility in K–12 educational environments.
• Accessibility program leadership experience.
• Experience integrating accessibility into technology procurement, contracting, vendor management, and renewal processes.
• Experience investigating, prioritizing, and coordinating resolution of accessibility issues in enterprise technology systems or services.

Success Signals

In this role, success looks like:

• Treats accessibility as a core technology quality standard and consistently integrates accessibility requirements into technology planning, evaluation, procurement, implementation, and lifecycle management.
• Establishes effective technology support processes for identifying, prioritizing, tracking, resolving, and escalating accessibility-related issues.
• Proactively identifies and mitigates accessibility risks early in technology evaluation, configuration, integration, and deployment rather than relying primarily on remediation after implementation.
• Builds IT staff capacity to recognize accessibility responsibilities, apply relevant practices within their roles, and respond appropriately to accessibility-related issues.
• Fosters effective collaboration among IT, educational technology, assistive technology, administrative leadership, curriculum, general and special education, and other relevant partners to support accessible technology implementation and barrier resolution.
• Holds vendors accountable for meeting accessibility requirements through evaluation, procurement, contracts, accessibility evidence, issue resolution, and ongoing performance management.
• Uses accessibility data, evaluation results, and feedback from students, educators, staff, and families with disabilities to monitor enterprise technologies, identify priorities, and drive continuous improvement.
• Communicates significant accessibility risks, unresolved barriers, and technology limitations to appropriate leadership and recommends actionable next steps.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Accessibility Knowledge (WHAT / WHY)

• Understanding of how accessibility should be addressed throughout the technology lifecycle, including planning, evaluation, procurement, implementation, maintenance, renewal, and replacement.
• Knowledge of digital accessibility requirements, standards, and guidelines relevant to K–12 technology environments, including ADA Title II and WCAG.
• Knowledge of digital accessibility evaluation methods, including automated, manual, and assistive technology-based approaches, their appropriate uses and limitations, and when specialized evaluation is needed.
• Knowledge of common technology accessibility barriers and how they may affect access to digital systems and services for individuals with disabilities.
• Knowledge of common types of assistive technology and accessibility features and how they interact with operating systems, hardware, software, platforms, authentication processes, and other digital services.
• Knowledge of accessible technology procurement practices and the types and limitations of vendor accessibility evidence, including Accessibility Conformance Reports (ACRs) based on the VPAT.
• Understanding of how system configuration, integrations, updates, authentication, interoperability, and other technical implementation decisions can create, preserve, or resolve accessibility barriers.
• Understanding of organizational roles and responsibilities for technology accessibility, including when an issue can be addressed through IT processes and when accessibility, assistive technology, instructional, administrative, or other specialized expertise is needed.

Applied Skills (HOW)

• Skill in integrating accessibility requirements into technology planning, evaluation, procurement, configuration, implementation, maintenance, and renewal.
• Skill in applying accessibility requirements and evaluation criteria when reviewing technology systems.
• Skill in interpreting accessibility findings to inform technical and organizational decisions.
• Skill in reviewing and interpreting vendor accessibility documentation and other evidence, identifying gaps or concerns, and collaborating with vendors to clarify accessibility claims and address identified barriers.
• Skill in developing and implementing processes for monitoring technology accessibility, tracking identified barriers, and prioritizing corrective action and continuous improvement.
• Skill in using accessibility evaluation results, support data, identified barriers, and feedback from individuals with disabilities to guide technology decisions and continuous improvement.
• Skill in providing guidance to technology staff on applying accessibility requirements and practices within their technical responsibilities.

Collaboration & Communication

• Competence in translating technical accessibility information into clear, actionable guidance for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Competence in communicating technology accessibility requirements, responsibilities, and practices to IT staff, administrators, educators, procurement personnel, vendors, and other relevant partners.
• Competence in clarifying accessibility roles and responsibilities across technical and non-technical teams and promoting coordinated action when responsibilities are shared.
• Competence in collaborating across administration, educational technology, curriculum, special education, assistive technology, and other relevant areas to support accessible technology planning, implementation, and problem resolution.
• Competence in collaborating with assistive technology and other relevant personnel to investigate compatibility and interoperability issues between assistive technologies and school- or district-provided systems, hardware, and software.
• Competence in communicating accessibility findings, limitations, and risks, and potential impacts to technical and non-technical audiences to support informed decision-making.
• Competence in escalating significant accessibility risks and unresolved technology barriers to appropriate organizational leadership and communicating actionable options for response.

Interview Questions

Behavioral Questions

• Tell us about a time you improved accessibility within a technology system or service. What was your role, what actions did you take, and what was the outcome?
• Describe a situation in which accessibility requirements affected the direction of a technology project or decision. What did you do, and what was the outcome?
• Share an example of how you balanced operational, budgetary, or security priorities with accessibility requirements.
• Describe a time you collaborated across technical and non-technical staff to address a technology accessibility issue. What was your role, and how did the collaboration affect the outcome?
• Tell us about a time you identified an accessibility concern with a technology product or vendor. How did you address it, and what was the outcome?

Technical Questions

• What are the most common accessibility barriers you encounter in enterprise or educational technology systems, and how would you address them?
• How would you assess accessibility barriers within an existing enterprise or district technology system and determine which issues should be prioritized for resolution?
• How would you use WCAG and other applicable accessibility requirements when evaluating and managing technology systems in a K–12 environment? When would you seek specialized accessibility expertise?
• What is an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR), how does it relate to the VPAT, and how would you use an ACR and other accessibility evidence when evaluating a technology product?
• You are evaluating a technology product for districtwide use. What accessibility requirements, evidence, and evaluation methods would you consider before recommending its purchase? What would you do if the available evidence were insufficient?
• How would you evaluate a product that relies on an accessibility overlay as its primary accessibility solution?
• How would you determine whether a technology system works effectively with assistive technology used by students, staff, or other users with disabilities? Who would you involve in that process?

Learning & Development

To prepare for this role, individuals should:

• Understand the digital accessibility requirements relevant to K-12 education. Start with the NCADEMI blog post, A Primer on Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

• Learn how accessibility laws, standards, and procurement practices apply to educational technology. Refer to NCADEMI’s Legal Foundations page for information. You can also check out Teach Access’ self-paced course on Instructional Technology.

• Develop strategies for embedding accessibility into technology governance and continuous improvement by studying NCADEMI’s Quality Indicators for the Provision and Use of Accessible Materials in PreK-12 Systems.

• Build experience reviewing and interpreting vendor accessibility documentation, including VPATs/ACRs, as one source of evidence during technology evaluation and procurement. Refer to NCADEMI’s resources for requiring accessibility in edtech procurement.

• Develop an understanding of how students with disabilities experience, access, and interact with digital instructional materials and technologies. Refer to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Video Series covering a variety of topics on digital access in education, including how people with disabilities use technology, applicable federal regulations, and identifying and remediating barriers to access.

• Build familiarity with assistive technologies, interoperability considerations, and automated, manual, and assistive technology-based accessibility testing methods.

• Learn how to collaborate with educators, vendors, and technology teams to support accessible technology implementation.

Reminder

Use this toolkit to incorporate accessibility-focused knowledge, skills, and sample pre-screening and interview questions into your job descriptions and hiring process.