Open Role: Staff Product Designer, Accessibility
Insights from the hiring manager; designing for accessibility in EdTech
Featured Open Role
Khan Academy is hiring a Staff Product Designer, Accessibility. Sydney Crescenzo, Product Design Manager, is the hiring manager and point of contact. Adrienne Hunter-Wong, Design Director, answered some key questions about the role.
Why might a designer love to join this team?
It's hard to find a team more mission-aligned and passionate about education for all. The work is complex and intellectually challenging.
Working at Khan Academy offers an opportunity to literally change the world for the better, without the pressure to generate revenue first and positive user outcomes second.
What are two or three qualities in a designer that float to the top of your list?
Emotional intelligence and maturity, patience with all the tiny details, and the ability to act as a super-connector in the organization.
This role will be working cross-team to improve accessibility across the platform, in partnership with other accessibility experts that already work here.
Two or three portfolio tips? What matters to you in particular?
Oh, definitely want to see a track record of measurable accessibility improvements!
Make sure to emphasize when you've successfully advocated for getting accessibility baked into the product development process, or created a "win-win" for both meeting business objectives and meeting the needs of the people using the products you worked on.
Anything else a candidate should know?
I also think it's important to note that this role will NOT be doing it alone, we have a growing team of cross-functional accessibility experts that are starting to spread out across the org and help maintain AA-compliance across the platform.
This role opening up is a greater investment in an area that we're already committed to. The person we hire will help us accelerate compliance efforts, and make it easier to secure state-wide partnerships so more learners can get access to Khan Academy.
➡️ See the full job description to apply.
💼 See the recent Round-up List of open UX roles in EdTech.
🎧 Podcast Rewind
→ The Design and UX Research of Khanmigo
Alicia Quan chats with two members from the Khanmigo team at Khan Academy:
Karen Shapiro, Sr. UX Researcher, former teacher of 16 years
Jonah Goldsaito, Principal Product Designer
They discuss:
The story of how Khanmigo was developed and their early partnership with OpenAI on its GPT4 LLM launch
The most challenging parts of the journey so far
Balancing excitement and optimism with caution and foresight when it comes to AI developments
What’s next for Khanmigo
Designing for Accessibility in EdTech
Event Rewind: Designers have the power to show that accessibility is beautiful,” says neurodivergent, UI and UX designer Nikki Kuhn. As a lead product designer at Panorama Education, Kuhn spent some time with the UX of EdTech community at a previous virtual event, sharing what steps her team is taking to design for accessibility.
→ Summary, Deck, and Recording on ‘Designing for Accessibility in EdTech’
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