Stacy Sporie

Web Accessibility Engineer

IAAP WAS Certified

Accessibility professional with over 12 years experience writing and testing web applications to meet WCAG 2.x AA standards and accessibility best practices. Passionate about realizing technology’s potential to create inclusive experiences that enable equal participation from people with disabilities.

Skills

• Interpret and apply WCAG standards and best practices to digital content, including web, document, and mobile applications. Create accessible user interfaces using native, semantic techniques with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Use WAI-ARIA when appropriate to extend capabilities.
• Train and mentor product teams to develop accessibility expertise.
• Perform accessibility testing using a variety of techniques: semi-automated browser extensions (axe DevTools), manual inspection, and assistive technology testing using keyboard, screen readers (JAWS, NVDA, iOS VoiceOver, Talkback), and magnification techniques.
• Apply knowledge of browser DOM, accessibility tree, and interactions with assistive technology to conduct analysis and develop code recommendations.
• Write detailed reports that include descriptions of issues, context about how people with disabilities are affected, and recommendations for resolution.
• Prioritize issues based on impact to users with disabilities.
• Write and evaluate Accessibility Conformance Reports (ACRs) / VPATs.
• Experience with Agile project management (Scrum and Kanban) and using JIRA to track work.
• Strong verbal and written communication. Experience working remotely since 2014.

Certifications

• IAAP Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS) - Issued May 2023

Education

• University of Wisconsin - Platteville | B.S., Computer Science - December 2011

Experience

Nelnet

formerly Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, acquired in 2018

Accessibility Team Lead, October 2022 - Present, Accessibility Architect, March 2017 - October 2022

• Set technical direction and quality standards for the accessibility team.
• Contribute subject matter expertise to win and deliver on contracts that brought in over $1 million in additional revenue. Advise Colorado agencies and municipal governments on technical fixes and strategies to meet the accessibility requirements of Colorado House Bill 21-1110 and WCAG.
• Collaborate with Nelnet’s design team to create an accessible design system that supports React, Angular, and traditional web applications.
• Support growth of Nelnet’s accessibility team from 2 to 13 members with an expanded scope to provide accessibility services to external clients.
• Evaluate web and mobile applications for conformance to accessibility standards, providing detailed reports that are used by product teams to guide fixes.
• Develop and present accessibility training, from awareness training for a company-wide audience to specialized, technical training for specific departments and teams.
• Train and mentor product teams to build accessibility knowledge, shifting accessibility left as a key consideration throughout the software development lifecycle. Provide guidance in a variety of ways, including custom training, one on one sessions, and feedback through code reviews.
• Promoted to Team Lead in 2022 due to demonstrated leadership.
• Embedded with product teams in a developer role to help meet accessibility goals.
• Supported resolution of software barriers encountered by Nelnet associates with disabilities.
• Supported a quarterly audit process with the Department of Education, receiving consistent positive feedback on the accessibility of our software.

Programmer - Senior Programmer / Analyst, January 2012 - March 2017

• Developed an accessible and responsive pattern library utilized by multiple product teams.
• Maintained Java Spring MVC web applications with a focus on user experience and code quality.

Tools and Technologies

• Axe DevTools (Deque)
• ANDI (SSA)
• ARC Platform (TPGi)
• JAWS
• NVDA
• Talkback (Android)
• VoiceOver (iOS)
• Windows High Contrast Mode
• Mobile Accessibility Features
• axe-core (Deque)
• HTML, CSS, JavaScript
• Git source control
• JIRA

Conference Presentations

• PDF Rescue: Practical Tips for Busy Professionals (co-speaker) - John Slatin AccessU (2020 & 2021)
• Accessibility: Putting People First in the Software Development Lifecycle (co-speaker) - CSUN Assistive Technology Conference (2018, 2019), John Slatin AccessU (2019)
• Consistently Accessible: Building Better Websites with Pattern Libraries - CSUN Assistive Technology Conference (2018)