Amanda Mace
Amanda Mace is AbleDocs’ Vice President for Australasia. In this role, she manages the Australasia office while growing and promoting the AbleDocs brand across the region. Amanda is Co-Chair of the Australian Accessibility Web Accessibility Initiative (OZeWAI). She’s also one of only two Australian-based W3C evangelists and the W3C Australian Western Region office manager.
Amanda is certified by the Australian Computer Society (ACS) as a Certified Professional. Before joining Team AbleDocs, Amanda was the General Manager of Web Key IT. In addition, she co-authored a book chapter for the textbook, “Web Accessibility A Foundation for Research,” as well as the white paper entitled, “Digital Accessibility: Perceptions, Expectations and Reality.”
Charissa Ramirez
Charissa Ramirez is a digital accessibility specialist helping organisations improve user experience through accessibility and inclusive design. She conducts usability research, document and digital accessibility audits and tests with assistive technologies.
She pushed for and led accessibility initiatives in both federal and state government. Among her roles were in UX, policy, design and communications at the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, NSW Government Digital Channels, Digital NSW, State Insurance Regulatory Authority and Revenue NSW teams.
Her contributions to accessibility were embedded in the early stages and launch of the nsw.gov.au website and OneCX Program, COVIDSafe Businesses registration platform and SIRA Claims Management portal, and business case development for Accessibility NSW.
Charissa uses immersive approaches such as accessibility experience sessions (empathy lab) and other in-person or virtual activities to spark much-needed conversations about user needs and accessibility barriers.
Charissa is one of the Accessibility and Inclusion ambassadors at the APS Digital Profession community.
Rosemary Spark
Rosemary has worked as a teacher, librarian, lecturer and, most recently, web content manager for a group of six hospitals in the South Metropolitan Area Health Service. During this time, she achieved the Professional Certificate in Web Accessibility Compliance from the University of South Australia.
During her final school appointment, Rosemary established an educational website composed of many weblinks to support teacher and student assignments, and also online literacy webquests. The website earned several awards, including the Whole School Award for Technology Integration Best Practice Award in 2000, the International Association of School Librarianship Website of the month for August 2000, and a Best Practice Award 2000 from the WA School Library Association.
In 2002 Rosemary was awarded Master of Science (specialising in learning technologies) by Curtin University. She is now retired and keeps in contact and up-to-date with the web accessibility community so she can remain a web accessibility champion to help ensure people with different abilities can access the internet.
Wayne Hawkins
Wayne Hawkins is the Director of Inclusion at the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN). He joined ACCAN in 2010 as Disability Policy Advisor and has led work on telecommunications access for consumers with disability.
Prior to joining ACCAN Wayne was National Policy officer with Blind Citizens Australia. Wayne is a doctoral candidate at Sydney University researching Australian telecommunications and disability policies. Wayne has been blind since 2005 as a result of Retinitis Pigmentosa.
Vithya Vijayakumare
Vithya Vijayakumare is the Digital Accessibility Specialist at VisAbility. With over 13 years of experience, Vithya’s role is to ensure that websites, social media, videos, documents and audio materials are accessible to all users. She has delivered projects in various accessible formats and also presented on various topics/workshops relating to digital accessibility, Inclusive publishing (EPUB/DAISY), content accessibility and future innovation solutions (3D Surround Sound/360 audio). Currently, she is a member of the Perth Web Accessibility Camp (PWAC) and Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities.
Joe-Anne Kek-Pamenter
Jo is a senior graphic designer and Microsoft Master Instructor with over 30 years’ experience in visual communication, inclusive education, and instructional design. Drawing on her lived experience as a person with disability (hearing), she has developed a reputation as an innovator in accessible design. She is currently Graphic Design and Communications lead for Griffith University’s Inclusive Futures: Reimagining Disability (IFRD) research alliance where she takes responsibility for all aspects of communication, design, social media and support for special projects and inclusive events.
She has also run her own boutique design studio since 2013 with a focus on disability inclusion and accessibility. Her most recent work includes the Media Diversity Australia ‘Disability Reporting Handbook’, ADCET Guideline ‘Supporting Deaf and hard of hearing students online’, and the soon to be published IFRD ‘User Guide for Inclusive and Accessible Events’.
Jane Ots
Jane Ots is a Digital Communications Specialist at GESB. GESB is responsible for managing the super and retirement savings of over 245,000 current and former public sector workers.
In 2021, Jane won ‘Accessibility Person of the Year’ in the Australian Access Awards.
Jane has been the driving force behind GESB’s online accessibility initiatives including their website and Retirement planning calculator, which have resulted in outstanding compliance against WCAG.
She is leading GESB’s future in accessibility and continues to help embed accessibility into their culture, practices and training, making sure accessibility is a primary consideration in projects and processes. She is providing her expertise in accessibility as a member of GESB’s Disability Access and Inclusion Plan committee, which helped develop their 2023-28 plan.
Matthew Putland
A passionate accessible HTML and semantics expert, Matt has over 8 years’ experience working with digital accessibility as his core focus. As a Digital Accessibility Specialist at the National Diability Insurance Agency (NDIA), he provides accessible design guidance as well as technical guidance on how to make our products accessible to as many people as possible. He works with the MyNDIS app and Participant/Provider portal teams, as well as internal teams.
In his career, Matt has conducted countless public and in-house training courses covering web, mobile apps and document accessibility. He’s also consulted with many large corporations, banks, universities and also smaller organisations including not-for-profits to improve their digital accessibility. More recently, Matt has also been mentoring individuals to improve their digital accessibility confidence.
Claudia De Los Rios
Claudia is an energetic Partnership Advisor, passionate about bringing people together to collaborate on research. She brings a unique blend of engineering skills and humanities qualifications with 10+ years of experience in different industries.
During her early career, Claudia excelled in Product and Project Management roles which provided a strong foundation to pursue a Doctorate degree in Web Design for people on the Autism Spectrum where she applied her passion for Digital technologies to improve other people’s lives.
Currently, as a Partnership Advisor in a global energy company, she plays a key role in the Technology and Innovation team where innovative solutions and technological advancements guide the energy transition and decarbonisation goals that the world requires.