Freelance Accessibility Tester – DHS Trusted Tester

Position title

Freelance Accessibility Tester – DHS Trusted Tester

Description

We are looking for an experienced Accessibility Tester / DHS Trusted Tester to support an internal efficacy evaluation of our proprietary document accessibility engine, ansrAccess.

The role will involve conducting detailed accessibility audits across digital documents and web-based learning content, comparing manual audit findings with results generated by ansrAccess and leading industry accessibility tools. Your findings will help identify detection gaps, false positives, false negatives, severity misclassifications, and other accessibility-related blind spots, directly contributing to product improvements.

This is a freelance opportunity suited for accessibility professionals with strong hands-on experience in Section 508, WCAG 2.2 AA, document accessibility, and web accessibility testing.

• Conduct manual accessibility audits using the DHS Section 508 Trusted Tester Process.
• Establish a manual accessibility baseline or "ground truth" for assigned documents and web content.
• Evaluate accessibility findings generated by ansrAccess.
• Run assigned files and web content through relevant industry benchmark tools and compare the results.
• Identify and document:
• True positives
• False positives
• False negatives / missed violations
• Severity misclassifications
• Gaps in remediation guidance
• Map accessibility findings to relevant WCAG 2.2 AA and Section 508 success criteria.
• Perform detailed testing of complex document structures and HTML/LMS content.
• Maintain accurate test data and document-level findings in the required assessment matrix.
• Contribute to technical reports highlighting accessibility detection gaps, recurring issues, and potential root causes.
• Provide prioritized recommendations that can support product, QA, and engineering teams in improving the accessibility engine.
• Participate in technical discussions or debrief sessions with the product and engineering teams as required.
• You will work with approved test files and web content that contain realistic and complex accessibility scenarios. The evaluation process will typically involve:
• Reviewing and validating assigned test content.
• Performing a DHS Trusted Tester manual audit.
• Evaluating the same content using ansrAccess.
• Running the content through relevant industry benchmark tools.
• Comparing and mapping findings across the different evaluation methods.
• Documenting discrepancies and accessibility gaps.
• Contributing findings and recommendations to the final technical analysis.
• Depending on your area of specialization, you may be assigned responsibility for testing one or more of the following:
• PDF: Tagged and untagged PDFs, reading order, tag structures, alt text, tables, forms, contrast, etc.
• Microsoft Word: Heading structures, lists, tables, document properties, and object placement.
• PowerPoint: Slide reading order, group shapes, decorative elements, slide masters, alt text, etc.
• Canvas LMS / HTML: Heading hierarchy, semantic HTML, ARIA, links, tables, embedded media/iFrames, and color contrast.
• Test assignments will be aligned with your demonstrated area of expertise.