Brad Souster

Skills summary

• Bilingual in English and French (Language profile: BBB) -Ability to effectively communicate ideas, technical details and design practices orally and in writing
• Knowledge of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, Government of Canada's Common Look and Feel (CLF) 2, W3C Web accessibility guidelines (priorities 1, 2 and 3), Government of Canada's Communications Policy
• Effective worker under pressure regardless of changes in priorities.
• Excellent rich media, Web 2.0, Web strategy and Web design implementation
• Deadline oriented with exceptional priority management skills
• Strong problem-solving skills, initiative and attention to detail
• Ability to work with others or independently
• Ability to manage human resources and delegate work effectively
• Client service oriented
• Knowledge of Internet/Intranet best practices including effective writing style
• Effective interpersonal relationships
• Dependable

Summary achievements

Web Renewal Project – DG Award recipient, DM Award Special Mention

• Templated CIC’s website with the newest WET theme and template to be one of the first GoC departments to successfully integrate into the Canada.ca website.
• Participated as part of a large team effort, including extensive testing of template components and plugins, collaborating with Web Standards Office and participating in WET’s Usability Testing and Design Style Guide Working Groups.
• Migrated CIC’s 20,000 page website to WET v4 template.
• Performed large-scale WCAG 2.0 assessments on CIC web pages and web applications.
• Adapted CSS of uniquely designed sections of CIC website to WET v4 look.
• Recoded JavaScript-driven dynamic web content to make compatible with and match look of WET v4.

Intranet WET v3 migration and home page redesign

• Successfully lead project to migrate CIC’s intranet website to Web Experience Toolkit (WET) Intranet theme template, clean up code syntax, and remove deprecated code and old or repetitive content.
• Provided support, gave direction and delegated work to a team of three coders.
• Gave technical advice and negotiated timelines with content providers for redesigned sections and components.
• Created mock-ups and suggested design solutions for home page using Adobe Design Suite.

Foreign Credentials Referral Office (FCRO) WETv3 migration (Note: The FCRO website has since merged with CIC website and no longer exists)

• Launched redesigned and WCAG 2.0-compliant Foreign Credentials Referral Office (FCRO) website.
• Implemented and troubleshooted HTML5 templates and updated 200 page website to WCAG
  2.0 (AA) standards. Updated website to WET components and plugins.

Content Management System (CMS)

Developed user-friendly web-based Content Management Systems (CMS), including user interface, to post, edit and delete online content using relational databases and server-side scripting languages. Completed using SQL, PHP, MySQL and Coldfusion.

Education

Diploma, New Media and Publication Design, Heritage College (CEGEP); Hull, QC; August 2006 – May 2009.

Web application development, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, ColdFusion and ActionScript (2.0, 3.0), Technical User Support, operating systems.

Continued learning

• a11yYOW, a11yTO, a11yMTL web accessibility conferences
• Service Canada's AEM Community of Practice (code sprints)
• WxT Codefest 2016 – Speaker
• WxT Codefest 2012, 2014
• UX Web Summit
• Mobile JS Summit
• Testing Accessible PDF Forms; Eliquo
• Social Media and Web 2.0 for GoC; Eliquo
• Mobile User Experience Design; Eliquo
• JavaScript Programming; CTE Solutions
• Introduction to Fundamentals of Web Usability; Usability Week course; User Experience Working Group * Information Architecture and Content Findability; Usability Week course; User Experience Working Group
• Usability Principles in Visual or Graphical User Interface Design; Usability Week course; User Experience Working Group
• ConFoo web convention 2014, 2016;
• CSS: Advanced Layout and Techniques Including CSS3;
• PHP with MySQL Beyond the Basics;

Work experience

Senior Communications Advisor (A\IS-05); Communications Advisor (A\IS-04); Senior Internet Specialist (IS-03); Internet Specialist (IS-02); Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada; Ottawa, ON; July 2009 to Present

• Performing quality assurance assessments to meet Goverment of Canada Communication Policy and Web Standards:
  • Standard on Web Accessibility, including WCAG 2.0 (AA),
  • Standard on Web Usability,
  • Standard on Web Interoperability, and
  • Standard on Mobile Optimization
  • Canada.ca Content Style Guide
• Testing accessibility of web pages and tools using screen readers and browser addons for machine readability, keyboard accessibility, colour contrast, mobile design, etc.
• Planning projects and delegating work to meet strict timelines.
• Preparing monthly team reports detailing web requests processed by type and client and number of requests coded under service level agreement (SLA) for submission to middle-managers.
• Preparing employee performance data reports from quality assurance tracking spreadsheets.
• Mocking up new website content for clients using accessible and up-to-date coding techniques.
• Creating dynamic web pages and widgets using client-side (JavaScript, AJAX, Jquery) and server-side scripting (ASP), XML, HTML5 and CSS3.
• Triaging with clients for and managing extensive web projects.
• Keeping CIC website templates up-to-date with latest WET releases from TBS.
• Performing excel-tracked WCAG 2.0 accessibility assessments on CIC websites for TBS reporting.
• Preparing design templates and documenting detailed procedures and best practices to ensure consistency and quality within the organization.
• Providing services, advice and recommendations to clients and management.
• Participated in the WET Design Style Guide Working Group to make collective decisions on design and style approaches to the WET core. Provided accessibility insight and provided accessible alternatives to design and style approaches put forward by other members.
• Triaging requests to provide clear instructions and materials for coders and maintaining overview of task and project completion.
• Prioritizing tasks with Outlook task system and calendar to manage resources and workflow.
• Implementing, testing and debugging HTML5 code and government-wide Web Experience Toolkit (WET) features in an Internet environment.
• Coding various accessible documents using XHTML, CSS, ASP, and JavaScript in Internet and Intranet environments.
• Adapting and implementing JavaScript and ASP scripts for multimedia playback.
• Preparing documents detailing procedures and best practices to ensure consistency and quality within the organization.
• Developing and distributing tools to project team to facilitate productivity.

CLF 2.0 Conversion Specialist; Heritage Canada; e-Services Branch; Hull, QC; June 2008 – May 2009

• Providing services, advice and recommendations to management and project team leads.
• Coding various accessible documents using XHTML, CSS and ColdFusion.
• Developing tools to facilitate site-wide search and replace to help meet strict project deadlines.
• Developing and distributing tools to project team to facilitate productivity.

Freelance Web Developer/Designer; 2006 – 2010

• Constructing accessible XHTML and CSS templates from provided Photoshop files or JPGs and implementing content.
• Using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash in the design and production of Web sites and interactive elements.
• Providing strategic direction, advice and recommendations to existing Web sites and web applications.
• Working with content managers to produce effective Web content for the demographic.
• Designing Web sites using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Dreamweaver.
• Balancing multiple projects, clients, priorities, and deliverables with occasionally tight deadlines.
• Developing and executing Web project plans.
• Constructing XHTML and CSS templates from provided Photoshop files or JPGs and implementing content.
• Developing Web applications using Javascript, PHP and MySQL.
• Managing development, clients, deadlines, meetings and quality control of Web projects.
• Proposing, implementing, delivering and overseeing ideas, requirements and Web strategies.

Computer Skills

In-depth knowledge of the following:

• Adobe Creative Suite; Illustrator, Photoshop, Fireworks, InDesign, Flash, Dreamweaver 8 and up, Acrobat 6 and up
• Web Browsers; Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari
• Microsoft Office; Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint
• Languages/Markups; HTML5, XHTML, XML, Cascading Style Sheets 3.0 (CSS3), PHP, ASP, MySQL, SQL, JavaScript, AJAX, JQuery, Meta Information