Introduction

OZeWAI has moved from running an annual conference to partnering with many in-person and online conferences and offering membership benefits as part of individual and organisation membership tiers.

The 'Ask the Professional' events are free for OZeWAI members and is recognised as professional development for many organisations.

Topic: For love of A11y: A look into local accessibility groups

This panel event will bring together accessibility specialists for you to:

Ask questions of the experts
Share knowledge of similar issues
Find where to get help with accessibility advice and expertise

Session access requirements

The session agenda and access details will be shared 2 days before the event. This is a remote online event using Zoom.

Please email info@ozewai.org if you wish to share any tools, communication methods or anything else we should consider to ensure you can fully participate in the session.

Thank you from the OZeWAI Committee

Panelists:

Adem Cifcioglu (he/him)

Adem Cifcioglu is an experienced digital accessibility consultant and web developer based in Melbourne, Australia. Adem has over 12 years of hands-on, professional experience working on the web, and has worked with accessibility in all its forms. From defining strategy and embedding accessibility into organisational culture, to technical accessibility, training and usability testing, Adem has done it all.

Adem also established and led the National Australia Bank (NAB)’s digital accessibility team.

In 2016 Adem co-founded Intopia, a digital accessibility consultancy, with the aim of creating an inclusive digital world by assisting organisations to embed accessibility throughout all stages of product development.

When he’s not helping people make things accessible, Adem is an avid football fan (round ball and AFL), supporting Galatasaray in the Turkish Super League and Collingwood FC in the AFL.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ademcifci

Amanda Mace (she/her)

Amanda is a Subject Matter Expert in Digital Accessibility with more than 10 years of experience in the industry. She manages the Australasia office for GrackleDocs while growing and promoting the brand across the region. She also manages the audit team, which is responsible for manual WCAG audits for our clients. Amanda is one of only two Australian-based W3C evangelists and the W3C Australian Western Region Chapter manager.

When it comes to accessibility, she believes that innovation with accessibility built into it provides security, independence, and privacy for people with disabilities and ultimately better, more usable digital products for all. She has spent her career advocating that it is everyone's job to do their bit to remove barriers so all people can have equal access and equal opportunity in the digital world. Using her expertise in WCAG and PDF/UA to educate and help others understand digital access as well as how to go above and beyond standards, to ensure great user experiences.

She is certified by the Australian Computer Society (ACS) as a Certified Professional. Having begun her accessibility career as a WCAG auditor/tester, she worked her way up in that small business through to management. Throughout her career. She has had many opportunities to contribute to educating others about digital accessibility, including co-authoring a book chapter for the textbook, "Web Accessibility A Foundation for Research," as well as a white paper entitled, "Digital Accessibility: Perceptions, Expectations and Reality."

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-mace-85171b77/

Brigitta (Bri) Norton (she/her)

Bri is a Digital Strategist and User Experience and Accessibility specialist based in Canberra, Australia and is currently a Digital Accessibility Specialist at AbilityWorks.com.au. Bri has more recently co-developed inclusive research workshops to share how to include accessibility earlier in the project lifecycle, which includes engaging with people with disability as part of inclusive research activities.

Amongst her professional experience with government agencies and local businesses, Bri is the co-chair for Australia’s Web Accessibility Initiative OZeWAI.org, coordinator of the Canberra Accessibility and Inclusive Design Meetup, a Standards Australia Accessible ICT Procurement Committee Member and a member of the ResearchOps.Community Cheese Board.

LinkedIn: www.linkedIn.com/in/BriNorton.

Charissa Ramirez (she/her)

Charissa is a senior accessibility consultant who advocates and designs for accessibility and inclusion. She has held various roles in digital channels, strategic communications, and policy teams in federal and NSW Government departments. She initiated accessibility programs and performed accessibility user research, auditing, document remediation, and training.

Charissa has been running accessibility empathy labs since 2019 to start conversations about accessibility and showcase the impact of inaccessible products due to a mismatch between user needs, design, and technology.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/charamirez/

Rosie Putland (she/her)

Rosie is proudly Disabled, Autistic, and the leading force behind Modality Co, a holistic digital accessibility consultancy based in lutruwita/ Tasmania. She is passionate and experienced in working with teams and leaders to develop sustainable, holistic accessibility practices with a strong focus on leading and educating with compassion to empower all to make a more accessible world.

Rosie is known for her ability to create engaging presentations that change perspectives, her unwavering passion for the accessibility and disability community, and her special interest in ducks.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/rosie-putland

Moderated by:

Ricky Onsman (he/him)

Ricky is a veteran Australian web designer, front-end developer, writer, and editor. He has been an OZeWAI member since 2014, and a Committee Member since 2017. He currently focuses on the OZeWAI website, newsletter, and social media.

As a writer and/or editor of articles, magazines and books, Ricky has worked with the likes of UX Australia, SitePoint, Web Directions and Smashing Magazine. As a freelance designer and front-end dev, he has spent two decades building accessible websites for clients.

Ricky has also worked with a series of companies focused on digital accessibility including AccessIQ, Simply Accessible, AccessibilityOz, Intopia, Tenon, and now US-based TPGi where his role as Principal Technical Writer sees him providing technical digital accessibility advice to a very large global team of engineers and auditors.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/rickyonsman/