Alternative Formats Manager Job Glasgow area,Scotland UK,Management

Job Purpose

The Alternative Formats Service Manager will lead the Alternative Formats Team and Service and will strive to deliver an outstanding student experience, supporting a whole university approach to accessibility. The post-holder will provide operational management and expert knowledge regarding accessibility of teaching materials, texts and assessment materials.

The role will involve managing a team of Alternative Format Officers to deliver support to disabled students and ensure that the service provision of physical and digital accessible materials meet and exceed, where possible, statutory requirements. The post-holder will act as a leading advocate in the promotion of inclusivity and accessibility and ensure promotion and implementation across the University. They will also lead in the evaluation and, where appropriate, the deployment of innovative solutions to accessibility within teaching and learning.

Main

Duties and Responsibilities

Establish, lead and motivate the Alternative Formats Team, with responsibility for staff development and performance management, ensuring resources are deployed appropriately to ensure service continuity.

Develop and oversee processes for planning, preparing, and converting required academic materials into alternate formats to be used by students with disabilities. This will include overseeing the population of a digital repository with remediated and accessible material.

Provide expert advice and guidance in relation to accessibility of teaching materials, texts, and assessment materials in line with the University’s Accessible and Inclusive Learning Policy (AILP) and supporting the University’s initiatives around accessibility.

Partner with Disability Services and other key stakeholders to support a whole university approach to accessibility by developing and maintaining suitable workflow processes for students and staff regarding accessible materials.

Implement reporting tools and internal KPIs to measure success and monitor continuous service improvement, benchmarking against other HE institutions and engaging with students and staff to gain feedback to improve future services.

Keep abreast of new developments in relation to legislation, research, assessment, assistive technology and accessibility, maintaining a good working knowledge of policy and practice within the HE sector and more widely, to ensure legal and contractual obligations under equality legislation.

Develop key partnerships with colleagues in Information Services (inc. Business Relationship Management (BRM), IT, and Library Services directorates), Academic & Digital Development, the Disability Service, and with College Learning and Teaching contacts, to support the university in meeting its strategic goals and statutory responsibilities in relation to physical and digital accessibility. This will include leadership on embedding an ‘accessibility by design’ ethos across digital services, in close liaison with the Information Office team based within BRM, and positively influencing key stakeholder groups.

Identify and promote opportunities to enhance accessibility amongst academic colleagues and raise awareness on reasonable and anticipatory adjustments for students with a range of needs.

Communicate and liaise effectively across a wide range of audiences including key internal and external stakeholders. This may include representing the Directorate on University on working groups or committees.

Knowledge, Qualifications, Skills & Experience Knowledge/qualifications Essential:

A1 Either:
Ability to demonstrate the competencies required to undertake the duties associated with this level of post having acquired the necessary knowledge and skills in a similar or number of different roles.

Or:
Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework level 9, (Ordinary Degree, Scottish Vocational Qualification level
4), or equivalent (including professional accreditation with relevant formal training), and experience of personal development in a similar or related role(s).

A2 Excellent IT skills including knowledge of reformatting and digitisation services and technology and of assistive technology for…