Accessibility Specialist/Editor

Overview

Company Overview:

With an annual budget of $2.3 billion and more than 6,000 employees throughout the five boroughs, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) is one of the largest public health agencies in the world, serving 8 million New Yorkers from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. We’re tackling a broad range of public health issues with innovative policies and programs and getting exceptional results, but our work is never finished. The breadth of our innovative programs provides the widest range of choices for every member of our team.

Since January 2020, DOHMH has been fighting the COVID-19 pandemic- activities include but are not limited to: surveillance & epidemiological investigations; lab testing; engaging and providing guidance to healthcare partners; ensuring the safety & health of responders; providing timely and accurate information to the public; promoting the emotional health of New Yorkers and coordinating citywide COVID-19 vaccine administration. With grant funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), DOHMH is undertaking a new initiative to establish, expand, train, and sustain the public health workforce to support jurisdictional COVID-19 prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery initiatives over 2 years.

The selected candidate will be an employee of Public Health Solutions, a nonprofit organization which is the fiscal and administrative manager of the grant, but work will be supervised by DOHMH.  This is a grant-funded position ending June 30, 2023.

Program Description:

Within DOHMH’s Bureau of Communications, the Publications Unit develops public health materials, such as flyers, fact sheets, palm cards, posters, brochures, reports, mailers and toolkits for New Yorkers. The unit manages publications projects from start to finish, including editorial review, graphic design, translation, and printing and distribution. The unit coordinates with internal teams and external vendors.

The Publications Unit also plays a key role in DOHMH’s COVID-19 emergency response. Since the beginning of the emergency activation, Publications has developed and reviewed vital COVID-19 documents for all New Yorkers. The unit also works with every division and emergency response group to create materials to meet the agency’s goals of protecting and promoting the health of all New Yorkers and especially those New Yorkers who have been most disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

Summary of Position:

DOHMH has an opening for an Accessibility Specialist/Editor. Reporting to the Director of Publications.

Specifically, the Accessibility Specialist/Editor will:

• Monitoring COVID-19 documents inbox and tracking COVID-19 documents through different emergency response groups and reviewers.
• Assisting in reviewing, editing and finalizing COVID-19 documents.
• Coordinating with contracted design vendors to design COVID-19 guidance materials.
• Working with Language Services team members to translate COVID-19 documents into at least 13 and up to over 20 languages for New Yorkers.
• Coordinating the distribution of public health materials, including COVID-19 materials, to different communities and sites, such as vaccine hubs.
• Managing editorial projects that circulate within New York City neighborhoods including Taskforce for Racial Inclusion and Equity’s (TRIE’s) priority neighborhoods and communities from start (writing, editing, design) to finish (printing, delivery), and working with internal subject matter experts to make sure that publications are written in plain language, and are concise, well-written and consistent with agency style.
• Remediating PDFs to ensure accessibility and to optimize the reading experience for people who use screen readers and other assistive technology. Remediation includes tagging, defining document language, meta data, font size, font embedding, color contrast, and bookmarks.
• Training staff on accessibility and best practices.

Qualifications and Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university.
• Previous experience working in fields related to communications for 2 years.
• Capacity and willingness to learn more about assistive technologies, such as screen readers (for example, JAWS), and how to check documents for accessibility.
• Excellent judgement, editing, writing and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to communicate complex messages clearly and simply to highly diverse New York City audiences.
• Strong organizational and problem-solving skills.
• Positive attitude and team-oriented outlook.

Preferred Skills:

• The ideal candidate for this position must be a proactive and self-motivated individual with the ability to work in teams and in a highly dynamic environment with multiple stakeholders and timelines.
• Experience with stakeholder engagement and project management.
• Excellent communication (verbal & written) and interpersonal skills.
• Experience with accessibility and PDF remediation.
• Knowledge and experience with WCAG 2.0 accessibility standards and guidelines.
• Desire to grow professionally, develop new skills and willingness to work outside of comfort zone.
• Experience working with the public health sector and coordinating projects involving multiple stakeholders.
• Ability to prioritize and work in fast-paced environment with hard deadlines.
• Fluency in Adobe Acrobat Pro and Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.
• Preference may be given to individuals residing in New York City (5 boroughs) or surrounding New York State counties.
• This individual will be expected to work non-business hours during emergencies.
• This individual must reside in the tri-state area (NY, NJ, CT) by their confirmed start date.
• This is a temporary grant-funded position ending June 30, 2023.

NOTE:  All applicants must comply with PHS’ vaccination policy.  Effective October 1, 2021, employees will be required to provide verification that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (with an FDA-authorized vaccine).

PHS is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from women, people of color, persons with disabilities, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, and veterans.