Re: NNELS Product Lead

Dear NNELS Hiring Team,

I am writing to apply for the NNELS Product Lead position with the BC Libraries Co-operative. My unique combination of skills and previous experience position me well for leadership of NNELS' primary products and future growth.

The mission of reducing barriers to public library access for readers with print disabilities is essential in the information age. But, as with anything in the modern world, it required ongoing technical stewardship, cooperation, and innovation—work that aligns directly with my previous professional experience and longstanding commitment to accessibility. A background in software development, alternate format production, accessibility consulting, and managing a team as a company founder—together with prior experience at NNELS—provides a strong foundation for contributing to the maintenance and growth of your digital platforms, accessibility conformance, and coordinating cross-functional teams. In this role, these skills would be directed toward supporting NNELS’ continued success and advancing the reach of its services.

My primary goal, as it is with all other projects, is to first: automate simple tasks, and second: focus the additional time on primary, overarching concerns. A good example of this would be during my time managing the Bytetools Technologies organization. There, my team needed to complete alternate formats of academic textbooks under very strict deadlines. While we could have manually reviewed hundreds of pages of material every week, instead we chose to automate things that computers are good at checking: heading levels, validity of links, as well as button and input labelling. Then, we had reviewers focus on making sure figures and mathematics were transcribed correctly, that print-page numbers are labelled at the right points, and carefully checking the interactive lessons.

If you believe that our goals align and that my skills are a good fit for this position, then I would welcome the opportunity to speak further on how to contribute to the great work NNELS is doing. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
—Tait Hoyem