The Role of Accessible Technology in Attracting and Retaining Talent Josh Christianson – Project Director, Partnership on Employment & Accessible Technology (PEAT) Joiwind Ronen – Strategic Consultant, PEAT

What is PEAT? Partnership on Employment & Accessible Technology Cooperative agreement funded by Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) Initiative to advance the employment and retention of people with disabilities through the development, adoption, and promotion of accessible technology

Employer Resources

TechCheck – An interactive resource on PEATworks.org developed to help organizations evaluate the current state of their accessible technology programs, and identify tools they can use to make organizational improvements – TechCheck walkthrough at 12:00 to 35:00 ( TgZpcI) TgZpcI)

Employer Resources

Developer Resources U.S. Web Design Standards – Designed to set a new bar for simplicity and consistency across government services, while providing you with plug-and-play design and code. – View on GitHub:

Online Job Seeking PEAT focused on accessibility during job seeking: – Search – Application – Pre-employment Testing

Interview Findings: Top Issues Awareness  Compliance vs. usability mindset Technology, logistics, and cost  Complexity  Customization Inadequate testing

Survey Results: Job Search and Social Media Increasing use of social media during job search – 50% of survey respondents used social media as part of their job search process – 37% said they experienced accessibility or usability issues when using social media

Survey Results: Job Application Experience Over 40% of respondents experienced difficulties or were unable to complete the application

Survey Results: Pre-Employment Testing Almost 70% of respondents were asked to complete pre-employment testing Almost 40% of those said they experienced difficulties or were unable to complete pre- employment testing

Survey Report

A New Employer Resource

Pain Points Talent Sourcing – Inaccessible social media Inaccessible images – Make sure all images are [tagged] Confusing job postings and hashtags – Use plain language job descriptions – Simplify hashtags; use “camel case” Lack of user support – Make contact info available on social media page – Provide content through multiple channels

Talent Sourcing Accessibility – Inaccessible eRecruiting videos Videos need synchronized captions Provide a transcript as well Use audio descriptions – Inaccessible live recruiting events Be descriptive Use good lighting Offer real-time captioning Be sure that all materials you give candidate are also available online

Poll 1.What else should employers do to make their social media more accessible? 2.Are there other talent sourcing tools that should be made accessible? – Go to and enter the code to tell uswww.govote.at

Online Application Accessibility – Inaccessible applications Use clear links Use coded headings on website and in documents Watch your color contrast Make sure important images have ALT text Make sure your forms have labels programmatically associated with their input Give people extra time before timing out Tabular data needs to be coded properly Don’t use CAPTCHAS

Post-Application Accessibility Pre-employment Testing – Testing (waiting on content from Dan Farro) TBD Interviews – Inaccessible digital interviews Be aware of connectivity and lack of access to broadband Ensure good lighting Provide real-time captioning Offer accommodations

Poll 3.What else should employers do to make their eRecruiting processes more accessible? – Go to and enter the code to tell uswww.govote.at

What’s Next? Employment Lifecycle 1.eRecruiting 2.Hiring and Onboarding 3.Work Immersion and Productivity 4.Retention and Career Advancement 5.Employment and Retirement

Poll 4.What are we missing? What are the major issues where we can have the most impact? 5.Who else should we talk to? What other resources should we be aware of? – Go to and enter the code to tell uswww.govote.at

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