Illustrative Reference profiles for a generic digital health care organization, not official job descriptions. About this reference.

Senior accessibility specialist

Band 7 · Accessibility specialist · 475 job evaluation points

UK GDaD PCF level: Senior accessibility specialist

Most often performed at Civil Service grade SEO or G7.

A senior accessibility specialist works with people at a range of role levels to embed accessibility into the output of teams.

At this role level, you will:

  • coach and mentor more junior colleagues
  • input into accessibility strategy with business areas or teams
  • create and deliver accessibility training
  • engage with teams across different levels and capabilities
  • potentially manage or lead individuals or sub-teams
  • engage with and contribute to the cross-government accessibility community
Contains public sector information from the UK Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework (https://understand-digital-data-roles-skills.service.gov.uk/), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright.

Responsibilities

Skills

SkillExpected levelWhat this level means
Communicating informationUK GDaD PCFPractitioner (3)

You can:

  • work collaboratively in a group and build relationships with others
  • identify issues through Agile 'health checks' and work with others to address them
  • manage stakeholder expectations
  • be flexible and capable of proactive and reactive communication
  • host or moderate difficult discussions within the team or with senior stakeholders
ConsultancyUK GDaD PCFPractitioner (3)

You can:

  • provide advice and recommendations to stakeholders based on your significant specialist knowledge and experience
  • lead the definition of guidance and inform how the organisation approaches delivery or uses digital and data skills more effectively
Governance and assurance (accessibility)UK GDaD PCFPractitioner (3)

You can:

  • challenge teams, make full use of existing arrangements and build strong relationships to reduce or remove risk associated with not meeting accessibility standards
Leadership and guidanceUK GDaD PCFPractitioner (3)

You can:

  • make decisions characterised by medium levels of risk and complexity and recommend decisions as risk and complexity increase
  • build consensus between services or independent stakeholders
  • identify problems or issues in the team dynamic and rectify them
  • engage in varying types of feedback, choosing the right type at the appropriate time and ensuring the discussion and decision stick
  • bring people together to form a motivated team and help create the right environment for a team to work in
  • facilitate the best team makeup depending on the situation
Technical understanding (accessibility)UK GDaD PCFExpert (4)

You can:

  • demonstrate excellent knowledge of accessibility standards and legislation, including edge cases
  • communicate requirements to a range of stakeholders
  • actively share a deep knowledge of how to select and use appropriate technology (such as ARIA, Accessible Rich Internet Applications) to provide an excellent experience
  • perform detailed audits of websites, services and documents, document findings clearly, and provide solutions for others to work from
  • understand and communicate how usability influences accessibility, and the boundary between them
  • advocate removing barriers across all your interactions
  • provide training on a range of accessibility issues
  • demonstrate confidence using a range of assistive technologies
TestingUK GDaD PCFExpert (4)

You can:

  • manage testing activities within development or integration activities
  • manage risks and take preventative action when risks become unacceptable
  • manage customer relations
User focusUK GDaD PCFPractitioner (3)

You can:

  • collaborate with user researchers and can represent users internally
  • explain the difference between user needs and the desires of the user
  • champion user research to focus on all users
  • prioritise and define approaches to understand the user story, guiding others in doing so
  • offer recommendations on the best tools and methods to use
Understanding health and care servicesThis referenceWorking (2)

You can:

  • explain the clinical and care workflows your work supports
  • use common health care terms correctly with clinical and care colleagues
  • recognize when a change could affect patient care and raise it
Equality, diversity, and inclusionThis referencePractitioner (3)

You can:

  • carry out equality impact assessments
  • build inclusive teams and practices
Clinical risk managementThis referenceWorking (2)

You can:

  • take part in hazard workshops and contribute to a hazard log
  • follow the clinical risk management process for your work
  • provide evidence for a clinical safety case, such as test results
Designing for clinical safety and human factorsThis referenceWorking (2)

You can:

  • design interfaces that make the safe action the easy action, for example by reducing ambiguous labels and needless alerts
  • test designs in realistic clinical scenarios, including interruptions and time pressure
  • raise design-related hazards with the clinical safety officer and record how designs control them
Health information contentThis referenceWorking (2)

You can:

  • write health content that people with low health literacy can understand and act on, such as symptoms and when to get help
  • work with clinical reviewers to check content is accurate without losing clarity
  • explain medical terms in plain English and use consistent names for conditions, tests, and treatments
People managementThis referenceWorking (2)

You can:

  • supervise day-to-day work and give feedback
  • take part in recruitment and induction
  • hold regular one-to-one conversations

Typical qualifications and experience

Band 7 outline

Knowledge
Highly developed specialist knowledge, typically to master's level or equivalent experience.
Autonomy
Works to organizational policy; decides how results are achieved; is the expert others consult.
Scope
Several products or services, or a specialist function.
Leadership
Leads a team or a professional practice area.
Accountability
Delivery of a service or specialist function, and its budget if held.

Job evaluation (illustrative)

FactorLevelLevel summaryPoints
Communication and relationship skills5Gives highly complex or contentious information needing developed persuasion and negotiation, presents to large groups, or communicates where there are significant barriers to acceptance.45
Knowledge, training, and experience6Specialist knowledge across the range of the specialism (postgraduate diploma level or equivalent).156
Analytical and judgmental skills4Judgments on complex facts or situations needing analysis, interpretation, and comparison of options.42
Planning and organizational skills4Plans a broad range of complex activities or strategies, adjusting them as needed.42
Physical skills3Developed skills needing speed or accuracy, such as advanced keyboard use.27
Responsibility for patient and client care1Helps patients, clients, or relatives during incidental contact.4
Responsibility for policy and service development3Implements policies for own area and proposes changes that affect other areas.21
Responsibility for financial and physical resources2Handles cash or valuables, looks after equipment used by others, controls stock, or authorizes small payments.12
Responsibility for people3Manages a group of staff day to day, teaches core or specialist training, or gives core HR advice.21
Responsibility for information resources5Designs and develops major information systems, or runs information systems for several services as the main duty.34
Responsibility for research and development2Regularly does research, development, trials, or equipment and system testing as part of the job.12
Freedom to act4Results are defined, but the job holder decides how to achieve them, within broad policy.32
Physical effort1Sitting, standing, and walking, with little physical effort.3
Mental effort3Frequent concentration on unpredictable work, or occasional prolonged concentration.12
Emotional effort1Rare exposure, or occasional indirect exposure, to distressing circumstances.5
Working conditions2Occasional unpleasant conditions, frequent travel or outdoor work, or near-continuous screen use on most days.7
Total (Band 7: 466 to 539)475

Self assessment

Rate what you do regularly now, add a short example as evidence, and plan an action for your most important gaps. Your answers are saved in this browser only.

Rated 0 of 13 skills: 0 meet the expected level, 0 below, 0 above.

Communicating information Expected: Practitioner
Consultancy Expected: Practitioner
Governance and assurance (accessibility) Expected: Practitioner
Leadership and guidance Expected: Practitioner
Technical understanding (accessibility) Expected: Expert
Testing Expected: Expert
User focus Expected: Practitioner
Understanding health and care services Expected: Working
Equality, diversity, and inclusion Expected: Practitioner
Clinical risk management Expected: Working
Designing for clinical safety and human factors Expected: Working
Health information content Expected: Working
People management Expected: Working
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