Communication Access Technical Consultant Job at University of Wisconsin Madison

Job Summary:
Are you looking for an opportunity to apply your technical skills, work in a dynamic environment, and to support unique technology as part of a team? The position works with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services area within the McBurney Disability Resource Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. You will provide on-call support, implement technology solutions, manage media captioning and audio description workflows, and collaborate with students, instructors, and other parts of campus as part of a team of professional and student employees to provide access across campus.

Our team works collaboratively with students, faculty, campus partners, service providers, visitors, and program participants to provide access to courses, academic events, and non-academic events. Our work is rooted in a deep commitment to accessibility on our campus, and our role is to support the technology that makes access happen.

The primary responsibilities of this position are providing real-time support for live, remote interpreting/captioning services; consulting with instructors regarding accessibility and coordinating post-production media captioning and audio description services for their course materials; setting up effective technology solutions for remote captioning/interpreting services; tracking and monitoring details related to accommodation requests; and consulting with departments to implement interpreting and captioning services for both accommodations and public access.

In this position you will interact with instructional technology at all levels, including hardware/software, planning, installation, configuration, troubleshooting, integration, and training. You will work regularly with the campus learning management system and video delivery platforms (Canvas and Kaltura Mediaspace), as well as captioning, interpreting, and audio description vendors. At the same time, you would represent the broad range of digital accessibility needs of students with all types of disabilities.

This position requires some evening and weekend hours to support services for campus events. The typical weekly schedule is Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Responsibilities:
Plans logistics for and converts instructional materials into alternative formats to provide access for individuals with disabilities. May assist with supervision and training of staff and end users to use converted materials.

1. 20% Converts materials (print, electronic documents, video, and/or audio) into alternative formats by utilizing technological mediums and various strategies.
2. 5% Selects and implements technology solutions, and develop and updates processes.
3. 20% Monitors deadlines and work flow processes to ensure delivery of services.
4. 35% Tests, troubleshoots, and resolves issues post-implementation.
5. 5% Communicates needs, sets expectations, and provides training to partners related to providing/implementing communication access accommodations for academic and non-academic events on campus.
6. 15% Provides on-call support (technical, audio-visual, and scheduling) to students, service providers, staff, faculty, and departments for classes and academic/non-academic events with sign language interpreting or captioning.

Tasks:

1. Collaborate with local IT and facilities to assess buildings, classrooms, event spaces, and AV systems; determine equipment capabilities; and set up effective technology to support remote and local captioning/interpreting services.
2. Select, set up, configure, and update connections to remote audio and visual streams to support service provider access to classes, meetings, and events (bridging laptops, CORE/VoIP connections, accounts, StreamText, streaming platforms).
3. Check databases daily to ensure all details for interpreting and captioning requests are complete, update media captioning database, and add any information or links as needed.
4. Identify, troubleshoot, resolve, log, and follow up on support issues, and implement creative solutions to reduce and resolve issues.
5. Meet with instructors prior to start of the semester to explain accommodation needs and processes, and develop plans for them to implement requested accommodations in their courses.
6. Monitor help-line (phone, text, and email) to address issues students and service providers are having accessing the audio or visual stream for their classes or requests.
7. Provide technical training to students, staff, vendors, and instructors regarding equipment, software, and technology involved with in-person and remote interpreting/captioning and media captioning services.
8. Respond to emails from professors/departments requesting media captioning; submit videos to captioning vendors; and distribute captioned and audio described videos through cloud video hosts or cloud storage.
9. Liaise with campus partners, event partners, and faculty to develop effective partnerships that support access to the accommodations.
10. Review and process invoices from contracted interpreting and captioning vendors.

Education:
Required
Bachelor's Degree in a technology related field and/or with related technical experience. (required by the start of the position)

Qualifications:
Required Qualifications:
- Strong interest in applying technical skills in the field of disability, accessibility, and accommodations to help ensure that students have full access to the University.
- Versatile technical experience working with a range of hardware, software, and operating systems.
- Strong practical knowledge in one or more of the following areas: information technology, instructional/educational technology, web technology/design, or audio/video production/recording.
- Strong problem-solving skills.
- Strong communication and customer service skills.
- Self-motivated and able to work well both as part of a team and independently.

Preferred Qualifications:
- Knowledge of deafness, services and accommodations for Deaf and hard of hearing postsecondary students.
- Experience working in higher education and navigating university departments to develop partnerships.
- Intermediate or above knowledge of Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS operating systems.
- Experience effectively managing a high-volume workflow in a team environment.
- Knowledge of Federal and State laws pertaining to disability access and compliance.
- Attention to quality and detail.

Work Type:
Full Time: 100%
This position may require some work to be performed in-person, onsite, at a designated campus work location. Some work may be performed remotely at an offsite, non-campus work location upon supervisor and department/Student Affairs division approval.

Appointment Type, Duration:
Ongoing/Renewable

Salary:
Minimum $60,000 ANNUAL (12 months)
Depending on Qualifications
The expected minimum starting salary for this position is $60,000.00 annually. Actual pay will depend on experience and qualifications. This position offers a comprehensive benefits package, including generous paid time off, competitively priced health/dental/vision/life insurance, tax-advantaged savings accounts, and participation in the nationally recognized Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) pension fund. For a summary of benefits, please see https://www.wisconsin.edu/ohrwd/benefits/download/fasl.pdf

How to Apply:
To begin the application process, please click on the "Apply Now" button. As part of your application, you will need to upload the following documents:

1. A current resume.
2. A cover letter that addresses your experience and qualifications relevant to this position.
3. A list of at least three professional references, including their contact information.

Your application materials (cover letter and resume) should be submitted in accessible formats (preferably in a native format, e.g. Word) and specifically provide information related to the responsibilities of this particular position and the required/preferred qualifications of this position, including:

- Information about your interest in applying your experience and skills in the areas of disability, accessibility, and accommodations.
- Your knowledge/experience related to deafness, disability and/or accessibility.
- Transferrable skills that you have relative to this work.

Note that experience can include work, volunteer, educational, and lived experience.

Contact:
Angel Cartagena
angel.cartagena@wisc.edu
608-890-2570
Relay Access (WTRS): 7-1-1. See RELAY_SERVICE for further information.

Official Title:
Assistive Technology Coord(EI005)

Department(s):
A04-STUDENT AFFAIRS/MCB/ADMINISTRATION

Employment Class:
Academic Staff-Renewable

Job Number:
309386-AS

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer.