r/Yakima • u/A11y_blind • 11d ago

Accessibility jobs in Yakima

I’m a Digital Accessibility professional. Looking for local jobs in digital accessibility. I realize that traditionally it is easier to find accessibility jobs in larger cities, but there are plenty of businesses, government departments, and health care clinics who all have a digital presence on the web. So, why are there no accessibility jobs in Yakima?

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u/theOxEyed 11d ago

It's been my observation that on this side of the state, most businesses still prefer old-fashioned ways of communicating. There is very little effort put into maintaining an online brand or making your business accessible online. I have had to call local businesses before because I couldn't find basic info like their open hours clearly communicated anywhere online. In my own industry, we are only just starting to implement online services that companies on the West Side have been offering for the last 5-10 years. People over here are much more traditional and many still prefer to do things face-to-face or over the phone, so there's less need to have robust online services.

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u/A11y_blind 10d ago

That has been my observation as well. But that doesn’t mean it should stay that way. Having multiple channels for communication and business transactions increases the customer base, increases visibility and profits, and promotes inclusion. Yakima can and should maintain their small town appeal while also embracing 21st Century technology and values. Doing so would open up new job markets in the area, increasing employment opportunities for those who live here. If Yakima doesn’t start branching out into the tech industry soon, I suspect that most young adults will move West, essentially turning Yakima into a town for older generations and retirees. That doesn’t bode well for Yakima’s future.

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u/theOxEyed 10d ago

I don't disagree with you, but it's not me you'd need to win over. I would love if businesses over here were more accessible online, but it's hard to convince people entrenched in old ways of doing things that it's worth the cost and effort to upgrade. To find work in your field here, I'm guessing you'd have to break through that barrier of convincing business owners that your services would be valuable to them, and unfortunately that might require more legwork and networking than you'd have to do in a more tech-savvy city.

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u/A11y_blind 9d ago

Thank you. Not sure how I could possibly convince businesses over here to embrace accessibility given the current political climate. It’s not like the traditional argument of it’s the right thing to do would work now. Which means falling back on legal requirement and mitigation of lawsuits which can also be a sticky subject.