Online Course Accessibility Expert – Consultancy At The Asia Foundation

BACKGROUND OF THE PROGRAM

Coalitions for Change (CfC) is a program under the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and The Asia Foundation Partnership in the Philippines. CfC offers innovative approaches to addressing deeply entrenched development challenges. CfC has supported and worked with many coalitions in many policy domains, such as land, governance, education, and conflict resolution. CfC works in an iterative and politically informed manner with Philippine leaders in government, civil society, and

organizations to introduce transformative reforms that have led to tangible improvements in the lives of citizens.

The second phase of CfC (2018 – 2024), or CfC2, more deliberately supported local and international leaders in civil society, academe, the private sector, and the government to pursue policy reforms through the delivery of training courses and mentoring support on Development Entrepreneurship or DE (which is CfC’s core approach) via the program’s Leadership Development component. CfC2 developed a suite of learning activities designed to help leaders learn about and practice development entrepreneurship. CfC2

successfully demonstrated that the program is also well situated to enhance the knowledge and skills of development practitioners while not losing sight of its core mandate of introducing policy reforms. CfC2 expanded the cadre of capable government and civil society leaders who use adaptive and politically smart programming approaches. CfC2 has since developed course content and modalities for learning streams to train potential DE practitioners. These learning streams encapsulate lessons from literature

and CfC’s own experience in thinking and working politically and in adaptive management. The program now has refined its set of “learning and doing” activities. Its online or in-person Introduction to Development Entrepreneurship seminars and its four-week online course fulfill the “learning,” while its mentoring program for those ready to pursue policy reform fulfills the “doing” component.

THE ASSIGNMENT

The CfC Leadership Development Team, which oversees the Development Entrepreneurship Program and its learning activities, requires a Learning Accessibility Expert who will render consultancy services to look into accessibility constraints and opportunities for CfC’s DE learning activities, particularly for the DE Online Course: 12 Keys to Successful Policy Reform. More information about CfC’s DE learning activities

can be found here.

The overall intent is to gain insights on how CfC could improve the accessibility of DE Learning activities to Persons with Disability (PWDs). Only one PWD has attended the session – a visually impaired learner – but this experience lent essential insights into the need to ensure accessibility features that learning sessions and materials should have to make these inclusive for PWDs. There are likely tools, applications, and professional services that the PWD sector use, trust, or endorse that DE learning materials and

sessions could use. At the moment, CfC has very limited visibility of these tools and approaches and, therefore, needs to tap the expertise and experiences of accessibility experts within the PWD sector.

More specifically, the consultant will:

a) Analyze and provide a detailed report on accessibility gaps and opportunities for the online DE Learning materials/sessions, including but not limited to:

• i) Website navigation and overall structure
• ii) Multimedia content (includes videos, images, audio, and texts)
• iii) Text readability and alternative text descriptions
• iv) Interactive elements (includes survey forms, pop quizzes, discussion forums, etc.)
• v) Compatibility of the course with assistive technologies (screen readers, magnifiers, etc.)

b) Create a plan of action to make the online platforms and materials accessible for persons with disabilities (i.e., visually impaired, deaf/hard of hearing, and speech & language disabilities), including specific recommendations on tools, applications and professional services to improve accessibility of learning materials.

c) Give guidance on accessibility standards and practices for future course updates and Leadership Development Team activities.

TIMELINE

The project timeline is estimated from April 26, 2024, to May 26, 2024. The exact timeline will be finalized upon agreement between the selected expert and the CfC Leadership Development Team.

QUALIFICATIONS

Interested applicants must have the following qualifications:

– Demonstrated expertise in online course accessibility, with a strong understanding of WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards.

Experience in conducting accessibility assessments and implementing improvements within

online learning environments.

– Familiarity with assistive technologies and their integration with online platforms.

– Excellent communication and collaborative skills.

– Prior experience in providing training and support on accessibility best practices.

– Previous engagements with local NGOs or CSOs are desirable.

The Asia Foundation is an equal employment opportunity employer. Employment selection and related

decisions are made without regard to age, sex, disability, national origin, color, or any other protected

class. Support will be provided to persons with disabilities in the recruitment process.

Only short-listed applicants will be contacted