Principal

Job Summary

Principals provide leadership for school operations, instructional quality, and student outcomes. They establish expectations and support schoolwide practices that promote the accessibility of digital educational materials and technology for students with disabilities. By integrating accessibility into instructional leadership, staff development, resource allocation, and implementation of district policies and procedures, principals foster a school culture in which accessibility is proactively addressed and understood as a shared responsibility.

Job-essential Accessibility Duties and Responsibilities

Responsibilities related to accessibility.

• Foster a school culture that communicates and demonstrates a shared commitment to accessibility for students, staff, families, and community members with disabilities.
• Establish clear expectations for the accessibility of school-provided digital communications, educational materials, technology, and learning environments.
• Apply district accessibility requirements and procedures when making or participating in school-level purchasing, adoption, and implementation decisions.
• Support educators in implementing accessible instructional practices through professional learning, coaching, and access to appropriate guidance, tools, and resources.
• Promote collaboration among instructional, technology, special education, and other relevant personnel to proactively identify and address accessibility barriers affecting instruction.
• Implement and reinforce policies and procedures for the timely identification, reporting, and resolution of accessibility barriers.
• Ensure staff understand their accessibility responsibilities and know how to obtain assistance or escalate barriers beyond their role or expertise or that cannot be resolved at the classroom level.
• Allocate appropriate time, resources, and personnel to support accessibility implementation and continuous improvement efforts.
• Create opportunities for students, families, staff, and other community members with disabilities to provide feedback about digital accessibility barriers and related school practices.
• Monitor the implementation of accessibility policy and practices across school operations, instruction, and technology use and identify priorities for continuous improvement.

Required Qualifications

Minimum requirements to perform the job:

• Foundational knowledge of digital accessibility and how accessibility barriers can affect access to instruction, information, and school services for individuals with disabilities.
• Working knowledge of federal requirements relevant to digital accessibility and disability access in K-12 education, including ADA Title II, IDEA, and Section 504, and awareness of WCAG as a technical standard for digital accessibility.
• Experience supporting the implementation of accessibility practices, accommodations, assistive technology, or other disability-related access supports in educational settings.
• Experience participating in the selection, implementation, or oversight of instructional technologies and digital learning resources, including consideration of student access and related instructional needs.
• Experience leading school improvement or implementation initiatives that require collaboration across roles, clear expectations, resource allocation, and monitoring of progress.

Preferred Qualifications

Nice-to-have skills or experience:

• Additional professional learning or specialized training in digital accessibility or accessible educational materials.
• Experience contributing to or leading schoolwide or organizational initiatives to improve digital accessibility or disability access.
• Experience collaborating with technology, special education, assistive technology, or accessibility professionals to identify and address digital accessibility barriers.

Success Signals

In this role, success looks like:

• Integrates accessibility into school improvement priorities, leadership decisions, and day-to-day school practices.
• Communicates and models clear expectations that accessibility is proactively integrated across instruction, digital communications, technology use, and school operations.
• Applies district accessibility requirements and procedures when making school-level decisions about curriculum adoption, technology selection, purchasing, and procurement.
• Strengthens staff knowledge and skills through professional learning, coaching, resources, and ongoing support, leading to increased confidence, competence, and consistency in accessible instructional and communication practices.
• Responds effectively when accessibility barriers arise by supporting timely access, engaging the appropriate personnel, and following established resolution and escalation processes when needed.
• Fosters collaboration across instructional, technology, special education, and other relevant staff to identify and address accessibility barriers through shared responsibility.
• Seeks and uses feedback from students, families, staff, and community members with disabilities to identify needs, evaluate practices, and guide accessibility improvements.
• Builds a school culture in which accessibility is embedded in everyday practices and understood as a shared responsibility rather than isolated within a single role or department.
• Monitors the implementation of district accessibility policies and practices, identifies areas for improvement, and uses available information to strengthen accessibility over time.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Accessibility Knowledge (WHAT / WHY)

• Understanding of how digital accessibility barriers can affect access to instruction, information, communication, and school services for individuals with disabilities.
• Knowledge of key digital accessibility and disability access requirements relevant to K-12 schools and their implications for school leadership and practice.
• Understanding of how individuals with disabilities may use assistive technologies and their role in supporting access to educational materials and learning activities.
• Understanding of how accessibility requirements, criteria, and evidence are used when evaluating curriculum materials and educational technologies.
• Understanding of foundational digital accessibility practices and the related responsibilities of school personnel who create, select, or adapt educational materials.
• Understanding of organizational responsibilities for digital accessibility, including the distinct and shared roles of district and school leaders.

Applied Skills (HOW)

• Skill in leading accessibility implementation across the school, including expectations, policies, and practices.
• Skill in integrating accessibility considerations into school planning, budgeting, resource allocation, and decision-making.
• Skill in identifying barriers to accessibility and addressing them through school-level processes, resource allocation, or appropriate district-level action.
• Skill in building staff knowledge and skills in accessible instructional practices through clear expectations, professional learning, coaching, guidance, and appropriate resources.
• Skill in using implementation data, feedback from individuals with disabilities, and accessibility evaluation findings to identify priorities and guide continuous improvement.
• Skill in recognizing when accessibility issues require specialized expertise or district-level support and engaging appropriate staff and resources.

Collaboration & Communication

• Competence in facilitating collaboration among staff and teams to support accessibility.
• Competence in communicating accessibility expectations, responsibilities, and procedures clearly to staff, school partners, families, and community members.
• Competence in establishing and reinforcing accessibility as a shared organizational responsibility while maintaining clarity about individual, school-level, and district-level roles.
• Competence in seeking, listening to, and incorporating feedback from students, staff, families, and community members with disabilities into accessibility-related decision-making.

Interview Questions

Behavioral Questions

• Describe a time when you incorporated accessibility into a school leadership decision or routine practice. What accessibility considerations influenced your approach?
• Describe a time you led or contributed to a schoolwide initiative that improved access for students with disabilities. What was your role, what actions did you take, and what was the outcome?
• Tell us about a time you led staff through a significant change in practice. How did you communicate expectations, address concerns, provide support, and monitor implementation?
• Tell us about a situation where a student, family member, or staff member identified an accessibility barrier. How did you respond, who did you involve, and how did you determine whether the barrier had been effectively addressed?
• Share an example of how you have supported teachers in improving the accessibility of instructional materials. What support did you provide, and how did you determine whether it was effective?
• Tell us about a time when a disability-related access need competed with other priorities, such as cost, time, staffing, or instructional preferences. How did you approach the decision?
• Tell us about a time you identified a recurring problem that could not be effectively addressed by individual staff members alone. How did you determine that a broader organizational response was needed, and what did you do?

Technical Questions

• A schoolwide digital platform is found to create barriers for some students with disabilities. How would you respond, who would you involve, and how would you support student access while a longer-term solution is pursued?
• What school-level systems and processes would you put in place to make sure accessibility is consistently considered across curriculum adoption, technology use, school communications, and professional learning?
• A student with a disability is unable to access a digital instructional resource. How would you determine whether the response requires addressing an accessibility barrier in the resource, implementing individualized support, or both? Who would you involve?
• How do proactively accessible digital educational materials and technologies, accessible formats, and assistive technology differ, and how can they work together to support access for students with disabilities? How might UDL complement these approaches?

Learning & Development

To prepare for this role, individuals should:

• Develop an understanding of digital accessibility and how accessibility barriers affect access to instruction, information, communication, and school services for students with disabilities.
• Study NCADEMI’s Quality Indicators for the Provision and Use of Accessible Materials in PreK-12 Systems to understand the actions schools take to ensure the accessibility of learning materials and consider how school leadership contributes to their implementation.
• Develop working knowledge of how accessibility laws and standards influence school leadership and decision-making. Refer to NCADEMI’s Legal Foundations page for information.
• Build skills for participating in accessibility-informed decisions about digital educational materials and technologies. Refer to NCADEMI’s resources for requiring accessibility in edtech procurement.
• Build skills for leading schoolwide implementation and organizational change related to accessibility.
• Develop strategies for supporting educators in implementing accessible teaching and communication practices. Refer to NCADEMI’s Accessibility Fundamentals Course to learn the basics of creating accessible digital content and developing skills for specific tools.
• Develop skills for engaging students, families, and staff with disabilities in identifying accessibility barriers and informing continuous improvement efforts.

Reminder

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