UX/Visual Designer

Position Description

Responsibilities

• The UX/Visual Designer creates visual designs and communicates visual design requirements.
• The UX/Visual Designer ensures compliance with digital accessibility regulations and requirements by performing the following duties and responsibilities:
• Create visual designs with accessibility in mind
• Incorporate accessibility requirements into design documents and specifications
• Partner with colleagues and team members to prioritize accessibility in visual designs

Qualifications

Required

Applicants for the UX/Visual Designer role are required to have these qualifications:

• Knowledge of digital accessibility and disability inclusion
• Knowledge of regulations related to digital accessibility (e.g., Section 508, ADA)
• Knowledge of WCAG 2.1 AA requirements
• Experience designing for platform technologies (e.g., HTML, CSS, JavaScript, iOS, Android)
• Experience creating visual designs that meet accessibility guidelines, including use of color and color contrast requirements
• Experience creating layouts that adapt to changes in text size and format, and different viewing modes, such as high-contrast mode
• Experience designing layouts that are accessible and responsive
• Experience conducting accessible and inclusive user research and user testing for visual designs and in the development of products and service

Preferred

Applicants with the following qualifications will be preferred:

• Experience articulating and incorporating accessibility requirements into visual design documents and specifications

Interview Questions

Screening Questions

• Knowledge of digital accessibility and disability inclusion
  • Who benefits from accessibility?
  • How would you define inclusive and/or universal design? Can you provide an example? (Does not need to be web related)
  • What resources would you recommend to someone who wants to keep informed of the latest updates on accessibility and inclusive design?
• Experience creating visual designs that meet accessibility guidelines, including use of color and color contrast requirements
  • How do you see accessibility fitting into your role in the organization?
  • How do you incorporate accessibility into your day to day activities? (Email, document creation, when presenting content, in the UX process when researching, designing, or testing, etc.). Give an overview of the process you go through for (insert example).
  • What educational resources would you recommend to a developer or designer that wants to improve their accessibility skills?
  • Explain the importance of color contrast in designing for inclusion.
  • Explain the importance of providing alternatives for color coded content in designing for inclusion.

Interview Committee Questions

Required

• Knowledge of regulations related to digital accessibility (e.g., Section 508, ADA)
  • Describe the difference between Section 504 and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
  • Describe the difference between Section 508 and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
• Knowledge of WCAG 2.1 AA requirements
  • What is WCAG? What are the differences between A, AA, and AAA compliance?
  • What are the Authoring Tools Accessibility Guidelines and what are some of the benefits of using these guidelines when creating an authoring tool?
• Experience designing for platform technologies (e.g., HTML, CSS, JavaScript, iOS, Android)
  • Describe appropriate instances to use a link, vs a generic button, vs a submit button.
  • Describe how to properly use heading levels to convey text hierarchy.
  • Describe when to use alt text for images or when to tag an image as decorative (considering the use of graphics).
  • Knowing semantic HTML, explain the use of roles given to design components.
• Experience creating layouts that adapt to changes in text size and format, and different viewing modes, such as high-contrast mode
  • What are some ways users can adapt device settings that affect the visual display of websites and apps?
  • What is your approach to designing pages and screens, given those adaptations?
• Experience designing layouts that are accessible and responsive
  • What are some user experience (UX) concerns to be aware of when using iconography in user interfaces (UI)?
  • Walk us through a project where you improved the accessibility of a product. What specifically did you change? Who did you partner with most closely to build and launch it (or not launch it, if applicable).
  • How can carousels be problematic for users with disabilities?
  • Why is significant flashing and motion content dangerous for users with disabilities?
  • How are auto-playing videos and animations dangerous for users with disabilities?
  • What should you provide with video and/or audio content?
  • Why is it improper to use images of text?
  • Why does color contrast matter?
  • Why do focus indicators matter both when tabbing and on hover?
  • Why does a logical focus order matter to screen reader navigation?
  • Have you worked on accessibility for a design system (if not, have you come across an example?). How was accessibility integrated, and was it done well?
• Experience conducting accessible and inclusive user research and user testing for visual designs and in the development of products and services
  • How might you implement or keep accessibility in mind when conducting user research?
  • How might you implement or keep accessibility in mind when testing a prototype?

Preferred

• Experience articulating and incorporating accessibility requirements into visual design documents and specifications
  • When should you use or recommend ARIA roles or attributes to solve an accessibility issue?
• Preferred question: Experience using assistive technologies (e.g., VoiceOver, JAWS, Dragon Naturally Speaking, ZoomText, mobile solutions, etc).
  • Describe two types of assistive technology and how you have tested with them.