Graduate Assistant I - IT Solutions

Job Description

Position Title: Graduate Assistant, Accessibility and Academic Support
Department: School of the Sciences
Supervisor: Dr. David Gardner, Interim Associate Director
Hours: 10-20 hours per week
Compensation: Commensurate with standard university GA pay scales.

Position Summary

The Graduate Assistant for Accessibility and Academic Support will provide direct assistance to the Interim Associate Director of the School of the Sciences. The primary function of this role is to bridge accessibility gaps in digital technologies and workflows. The GA will perform tasks related to document remediation, technical support, and administrative assistance. Critically, this role will also systematically identify, document, and report institutional accessibility barriers, contributing to the university’s long-term accessibility goals while enabling the Associate Director to focus on their core duties.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

1. Document & Content Remediation: * Use OCR software and other tools to convert inaccessible documents (PDFs, scans, images) into accessible, text-based formats. * Remediate existing Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and other materials received from external sources to ensure they are screen reader compatible (e.g., adding proper heading structures, alt text, and table headers). * Convert and adapt pre-existing or third-party course materials (e.g., publisher content, scanned articles, materials from other instructors) for the Canvas LMS, ensuring all content meets university accessibility standards.

2. Visual & Technical Assistance: * Act as a “sighted assistant” for tasks that are inherently visual and currently inaccessible, such as describing the content of charts, diagrams, or inaccessible software interfaces. * Provide visual feedback for AI and VR research projects (e.g., describing the output of a simulation or data visualization). * Provide ongoing technical support for specialized accessible hardware and software, including initial setup, expert configuration, and re-configuration following system updates, resets, or the introduction of new, visually-dependent features.

3. Accessibility Auditing & Reporting: * Collaborate with the Associate Director to systematically identify, document, and report accessibility barriers within university-provided software and web systems. * Research and propose potential workarounds or long-term solutions to improve system accessibility, with the goal of reducing the future need for manual assistance.

4. Administrative & Research Support: * Assist with managing digital files and communications by navigating visually-complex or inaccessible interfaces (e.g., performing drag-and-drop actions, organizing files in systems with poor screen reader support). * Provide support for the research lifecycle by: (a) navigating inaccessible academic search portals and library databases at the direction of the Associate Director, (b) triaging and remediating downloaded research articles (primarily inaccessible PDFs), and (c) performing the final visual formatting of citations and bibliographies to meet specific publication style guides. * Manage the data lifecycle for inaccessible administrative reports and forms by: (a) extracting raw data from visually-dependent systems, (b) remediating and sanitizing the data (e.g., removing merged cells, interpreting color-coding) so it can be processed via screen reader or script, and (c) reformatting the final analytical output to meet specific, visually-based submission requirements.

Qualifications

Required: * Currently enrolled as a graduate student in good standing at TWU. * High proficiency with Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace, with demonstrated advanced skills in Excel and/or Google Sheets. This includes experience with functions, data cleaning, and managing complexly formatted spreadsheets (e.g., working with merged cells, filters, and pivot tables). * Excellent organizational skills and a keen attention to detail. * Ability to work independently and handle confidential information with discretion.

Preferred: * Familiarity with the Canvas Learning Management System. * A strong interest in or prior experience with digital accessibility standards (WCAG). * A high degree of general technology adeptness, with the ability to quickly learn and troubleshoot new software applications. * Basic scripting or programming skills (e.g., Python, Bash) for task automation would be considered a significant asset.<