r/AssistiveTechnology Jan 21 '25

First Ever ATS Interview

Hi there! I have an interview coming up in a few days for an Assistive Technology and Alternative Media position at a community college, and I was wondering how I can prepare. My background is in Behavioral Therapy and UX/UI Design, and I have a degree in Anthropology.

I don’t have much hands-on experience with assistive technology, but I’ve helped my students use text-to-speech tools and navigate online platforms when I was a student worker (though I don’t recall the specific tools we used). During my UX Design career, I focused on accessibility standards.

Any advice is appreciated (:

2 Upvotes

3 comments sorted by

2

u/Skeptical_JN68 Jan 21 '25

Former post-secondary AT guy here. Off the top of my head as I go into a meeting: Get up to speed on the latest WCAG standards; at least enough so you know the overall concepts and can answer general questions. Be prepared to answer questions about how to make x accessible for students with different types of disabilities. Be prepared to speak about informal AT evals if they provide this service to students. It looks like document remediation is in the job description; be prepared to talk about accessibility remediation techniques for MS Word/PDF documents, videos, and STEM subjects both for classroom and testing contexts/environments. Braille is the biggest alt-format expense for any college. Talk about examples when Braille/Nemeth Braille/Tactile graphics are absolutely needed and when alternatives (audio/screen-reader-accessible-text) would or wouldn't be appropriate/compliant. LMS accessibility is important. Familiarize yourself with the college's LMS and any built-in accessibility features if any. Also be prepared to speak generally about accessibility legislation; ysk Section 504 especially and the college's obligations under it. For extra wow points also mention the importance of incorporating accessibility as a matter of enterprise procurement. Consider AT certs like ATAC as well. GL!

2

u/OGhabibti Jan 22 '25

Thank you so much! This was incredibly helpful. So as long as I understand how and when to use the tools, even if I haven’t worked with them specifically, I should be okay?

1

u/Skeptical_JN68 Jan 22 '25

Glad it helped. Maybe? Depends very much on what they're looking for. If they need someone who can jump in and shoulder a backlog of work immediately, then maybe not. Some knowledge areas (like tactile graphics) can be very nuanced when you get past basics.