OZeWAI online event - Ask the Professionals - 20 November 2024

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. Benefits include online events to ask the tough accessibility questions of the professional accessibility specialists.

Topic: Accessibility testing 

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

• Ask questions from 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:

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

Hans Hillen - TPGi (He/Him)

Hans Hillen is an accessibility professional with close to two decades of expertise spanning consulting, testing, and development. As a seasoned practitioner in the field, he has been passionate about shaping accessibility strategies and solutions that make the digital world more inclusive for all users. 

Currently serving as the Director of Knowledge Center at TPGi, Hans plays a pivotal role in providing insights, resources, and best practices that help organisations ensure their products and services meet the highest accessibility standards. Originally from the Netherlands, Hans now resides in New Zealand.

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

Karl McCabe - BankWest (He/Him)

Karl McCabe is the Digital Accessibility Lead at BankWest and has working as a Digital Accessibility Specialist for 5 years. With a background in graphic design, and broad experience as a WCAG auditor, accessible document and PDF/UA specialist, he has extensive experience embedding accessibility in the lifecycle of web and native app design and development at large organisations. Karl's work in the accessibility industry reflects his position as an advocate for the rights of all people and their equitable access to the digital world.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karl-mccabe-4a842818b

Moderated by:

Gian Wild (She/Her)

Gian Wild works in the area of web accessibility: making sure web sites and mobile apps can be used by people with disabilities. Gian has worked in the accessibility industry since 1998. She worked on the first Level AAA accessible website in Australia (Disability Information Victoria) and developed one of the first automated accessibility testing tools, PurpleCop, in 2000.  She spent six years contributing to the international set of web accessibility guidelines used around the world, the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Gian Wild is the CEO, Founder and President of AccessibilityOz, established in Australia in 2011 and the United States in 2015. Gian is the Chair of the Mobile Site and Native App Mobile Accessibility Guidelines, is active on the Higher Education Content Steering Group for Accessibility Switchboard, as well as a committee member of the ICT Accessibility Testing Symposium conference in the United States.

Gian speaks at both web and accessibility conferences around the world, including in the United States, Europe, South America and Canada. In June 2015, Gian presented to the United Nations on the importance of web accessibility at the Conference of State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In 2019, Gian won the inaugural Accessibility Person of the Year in Australia.

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