Communication Access Technical Consultant

Are you looking for an opportunity to apply your technical skills, work in a dynamic environment, and 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
• consulting with departments to implement interpreting and captioning services for both accommodations and public access.
• There are secondary opportunities available to support our Adaptive Technology staff with alternative formats and general tech support.

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, 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Areas of work within the responsibilities may include:

• 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
• 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)
• 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
• Identify, troubleshoot, resolve, log, and follow up on support issues, and implement creative solutions to reduce and resolve issues
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• Liaise with campus partners, event partners, and faculty to develop effective partnerships that support access to the accommodations
• Review and process invoices from contracted interpreting and captioning vendors

• Monitors deadlines and work flow processes to ensure delivery of services

• Selects and implements technology solutions, and develop and updates processes

• Provides on-call support (technical, audio-visual, and scheduling) to students, service providers, staff, faculty, and departmentsforclassesandacademic/non academiceventswithsignlanguageinterpretingorcaptioning

• Communicates needs, sets expectations, and provides training to partners related to providing/implementing communication access accommodations for academic and non-academic events on campus

• Tests, troubleshoots, and resolves issues post-implementation

• Works in and helps cover for staff in Adaptive Technology Services and Center technical support, as needed (e.g. Alternative Formats accessible material conversion, onboarding/offboarding, local level of IT support, technical documentation)

• Converts materials (print, electronic documents, video, and/or audio) into alternative formats by utilizing technological mediums and various strategies

Student Affairs, Student Success and Belonging, McBurney Disability Resource Center

The McBurney Disability Resource Center is the office for students with disabilities and classroom accommodations on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. As part of the student accommodation process, we work collaboratively with students and instructors to provide and support effective student accommodations. While the McBurney Center primarily focuses on student accommodations, the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) Services Program also fills campus interpreting and captioning requests for departments, faculty, staff, visitors, program participants, and campus events.

The McBurney Disability Resource Center is part of the Division of Student Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, led by the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. We strive to create an inclusive campus environment that allows students to engage, explore, and participate in the Wisconsin Idea. We work with over 5,700 students annually, have a strong collaborative team, and partner with students, instructors, staff, student organizations, and others throughout the campus.

The expected minimum starting salary for this position is $61,000.00 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

• 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

• Knowledge of deafness, services and accommodations for Deaf and hard of hearing postsecondary students

• Attention to quality and detail

• 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

• Proficiency in American Sign Language (ASL)

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

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.

**Please note that there is only one attachment field. You must upload all your documents into the one attachment field.

Application reviewers will evaluate the materials you submit, including your resume and cover letter, to identify qualified applicants who will advance in the recruitment process. Please ensure that your application is complete and submitted by the deadline to be considered for this position. Successful applicants must be authorized to work in the United States by their start date and must maintain continuous work authorization for the duration of their employment (i.e., a citizen or national of the United States, a lawful permanent resident, a foreign national authorized to work in the United States without the need of employer sponsorship).

Angel Cartagena, hr@studentaffairs.wisc.edu , 608-890-2570

Relay Access (WTRS): 7-1-1. See RELAY_SERVICE for further information.

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.

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

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, including but not limited to, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, or status as a protected veteran and other bases as defined by federal regulations and UW System policies. We promote excellence by acknowledging skills and expertise from all backgrounds and encourage all qualified individuals to apply. For more information regarding applicant and employee rights and to view federal and state required postings, visit the Human Resources Workplace Poster website.

To request a disability or pregnancy-related accommodation for any step in the hiring process (e.g., application, interview, pre-employment testing, etc.), please contact the Divisional Disability Representative (DDR) in the division you are applying to. Please make your request as soon as possible to help the university respond most effectively to you.

Employment may require a criminal background check. It may also require your references to answer questions regarding misconduct, including sexual violence and sexual harassment.

The University of Wisconsin System will not reveal the identities of applicants who request confidentiality in writing, except that the identity of the successful candidate will be released. See Wis. Stat. sec. 19.36(7).

The Annual Security and Fire Safety Report contains current campus safety and disciplinary policies, crime statistics for the previous 3 calendar years, and on-campus student housing fire safety policies and fire statistics for the previous 3 calendar years. UW-Madison will provide a paper copy upon request; please contact the University of Wisconsin Police Department.