OZeWAI online event - Ask the Professionals - 27 September 2024

Introduction

OZeWAI has moved from running an annual conference to partnering with many in-person and online events 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 Training and Courses

This panel event will bring together three 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:

Dax Castro (He/Him)

Over 25 years of experience in online and traditional marketing, print/web design, multimedia, and online business consulting. Dax is passionate about helping companies create a culture of inclusion and accessibility awareness. He is the owner and partner of Chax Training and Consulting, a company that provides accessibility consulting and software training for various tools and platforms, such as MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat, JAWS, NVDA, and other remediation software.

Dax is also an Adobe Certified Associate in Print & Digital Publication Using Adobe InDesign, a Trusted Tester for Web on Windows, and a Section 508 Standards for Web certified professional. His mission is to promote the P.O.U.R. principles of the Section 508 Guidelines and to empower staff to adopt a "design with accessibility in mind" approach.

Dax is addicted to accessibility, aquariums, and the outdoors. Some have called him the Sheldon Cooper of Accessibility. He loves his alpaca and is constantly building something. 

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

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/ 

Russ Weakley (He/Him) 

Russ has worked in the design and development field for more than 20 years. Russ is a User Experience professional, user-focused web designer, front-end developer, and trainer who is passionate about accessibility and inclusion.

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

Moderated by:

Brigitta (Bri) Norton (She/Her)

Bri is a Digital Strategist and User Experience and Accessibility specialist based in Canberra, Australia, and has been an Accessibility Lead for both State and Federal Government. Bri has more recently co-developed inclusive research workshops to share how to include accessibility earlier in the project lifecycle, including 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 and the conference convenor for Australia’s Web Accessibility Initiative OZeWAI.org, a Standards Australian Accessible ICT Procurement Committee Member, and a member of the ResearchOps.Community Cheese Board. 

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