Zac Fitz-Walter

I have been nominated as a candidate for the ITS Australia Board of Directors and to represent the University of Technology Sydney from 2025 onwards. The online voting has opened today and will close on Wednesday, 27 November, as announced via dedicated links sent to ITS Australia core members:   - Adelaide 3:30pm - Brisbane 3:00pm - Melbourne 4:00pm - Perth 1:00pm - Sydney 4:00pm If you wonder what I have done over the past 10 years as part of ITS Australia membership and what my plans are if I get elected, please read below: ITS Australia contribution summary: I have been involved with ITS Australia for the last 10 years, previously as part of CSIRO and, more recently, as part of the University of Technology Sydney. Over the years, I have organised several presentations and special sessions and invited renowned speakers from all around the world. I have also held demonstration booths and served as chair reviewer and chair organiser for several ITS Australia summits and various national conferences. I was a co-organiser of the Data Community of Practice and represented scientific progress on various mobility issues several times. In 2024, I was part of the ITS Australia Summit, organised demonstrations of our AI and transport capabilities at UTS, and also helped to organise the ITS Career Expo for NSW students to join the summit for free and engage with industry. That was really well received: more than 100 students joined, and I was so happy to receive so much positive feedback after this. What’s my plan if I get elected? For the next 2 years, if I get elected as an ITS Australia Board Director, I plan to leverage my scientific position and knowledge in the ITS field and: -         Contribute to organising and holding a joint event between two large conferences on the Gold Coast in 2025, such as the IEEE ITSC conference and the ITS Australia Summit. As a scientific representative, I will be part of both organising committees and work towards leveraging joint plenaries/demonstrations/presentations that can benefit both the international A* representatives in transportation science that will come to Australia and the Industrial Australian landscape via our national industry and government representatives that will come to the event. -         Help the Next-gen community by expanding the free student access to ITS Australia events for internships and industry -         Organise joint scientific and innovation events across academia and the industry sector to promote ongoing collaboration and idea generation. -         Promote the ITS Australia events and its benefits to members and new emerging industries. If you are an ITS Australia member and would like to hear more from scientists like me working in ITS, please vote! To vote, use your access key and visit: https://lnkd.in/g8cTGUzn #itsaustralia #boardofdirectors #voting UTS Data Science Institute Fang Chen, Distinguished Professor

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This article from Vision Australia shares five simple tips for designing accessible web forms. #Accessibility

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Module 2 complete! Loving the User Research course at the UX Design Institute so far! In this module I learnt about how to effectively plan a research project, from running stakeholder kick off meetings, to designing research questions and objectives, to choosing appropriate research methods, to recruiting participants and creating a coherent research plan. My first project has been submitted as well 🎉 Can't wait to start module 3! #userresearch #careerchange

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Check out Allison Ravenhall's insightful talk from A11y Camp on Customer Informed Accessibility in the CommBank app. This session highlights how usability testing with low vision users revealed an issue in our App 5.0 redesign. Some of you might remember Jacob Torres Agudo and Liam Corry's presentation at The Research Society Human Insights conference, where they discussed the research journey behind the new CommBank app home screen (I might of mentioned it a couple of times, did you hear they won an award?). Allison's talk goes deeper into how our testing with low vision users uncovered an unexpected design flaw. Usability testing often gets a bad rap for being boring and low value, but for me, it's some of the most crucial work we do. A lot of the time designs pass with flying colours, but it's those moments when we uncover a usability issue that are truly invaluable. This is especially true when we're addressing the needs of users with accessibility requirements. Enjoy this super informative talk and learn more about the importance of usability testing in creating accessible designs: https://lnkd.in/gKrQTexE #commbanklife #accessibility #a11y #research #humaninsightsconference

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Delivering TQ Creating Tiriti / Treaty Literacy in Organisational amd Workforce Development to the Literacy Aotearoa Board, CEO and Senior Leadership Team today. #tq #tetiriti #thetreaty #creatingliteracy #organisationaldevelopment #workforcedevelopment #literacyaotearoa The course has four main modules: 1. Te Tiriti / The Reaty as Roadmap; 2. Te Tiriti / The Treaty as Blueprint, 3. Te Tiriti / The Treaty as Compass; abd, 4. Case studies of Organisational and Workfirce Development in TQ Tiriti and Treaty Literacy, who has done what, where, why and how! I'm doing the business today! Teaching my socks off! Working to help share lessons learned. Working with Martin Wikaira. The image below shows the logos of some of the organisations that I use as case studies in the course. Turou Hawaiiki! May the force be with us!

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I wrote a blog post: How Design System Day makes our community stronger 💪 It’s a #DesignSystemDay write up and a little bit on how it fits with our community strategy. ⏱️Take a read if you have 4 mins spare: https://lnkd.in/efMFPsvq #DSDay24 #community #DesignSystem

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‘What is inclusive design and why does it matter?’ If you’re curious, Today have released a book on this process where we dive into how it can be used to help produce better business results and social outcomes, for everyone. Link below to download a free digital copy. 👇🏻

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Two things: We have just sold our first Gadget Grove deployment, which is designed as a safe lab where organisations can play with realistic data to test the potential use of AI in their business. More exciting news in the coming week, together with a big product announcement in two weeks. Second, the AICD posted this week that three-quarters of the respondents in the Accenture Pulse of Change Global C-suite Survey believe they need some level of generative artificial intelligence training, with 15 percent viewing extensive training as critical. We agree wholeheartedly. https://lnkd.in/gkcCDQYT We again remind you that the course we wrote for business executives (not techies) through iEC Professional is FREE for Queensland residents, is self-paced, SFIA-mapped and sponsored by the Queensland Government and Australian Information Industry Association: https://lnkd.in/gZs4Pdwt

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Have you observed gambling venues encourage someone to gamble even when they are showing signs of distress? Have you or someone you know been allowed to gamble despite asking to be self-excluded? Venues "have a duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent and minimise harm from the operation of gaming machines, by monitoring the welfare of customers, discouraging intensive and prolonged gaming machine play, and intervening when a customer is displaying behaviour that is consistent with gambling harm". We now have a link to report breaches directly to the regulator in Victoria. Remember to provide as much detail as possible (location, times, dates, etc). You can see the codes of conduct here https://lnkd.in/gwHcFH_9. The next step is to improve the codes and the penalties that apply for breaching these.

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The latest ACER Snapshot sheds light on an essential issue: many Australian students aren’t regularly borrowing books from school libraries, with 13% of Year 4 students reporting they rarely or never do so. This finding is a reminder of how crucial libraries and librarians are in building reading skills and access, particularly for students without resources at home.  It’s an eye-opening read that raises questions about how we can make these resources even more accessible and impactful. Take a look at the full Snapshot on Australian students' library access and use. https://lnkd.in/g4vuWxQd #ACER #StudentSuccess #LiteracyMatters #SchoolLibraries #ReadingCulture #EducationInsights #LibraryAccess #BuildingReaders #EdResearch #AustralianEducation #SupportLiteracy

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I enjoyed Matthew Deeprose's article on how gen-AI tools can be incorporated into accessibility workflows. AI has the potential to speed up the time it takes to complete these processes. For example, auto-generated captions still need to be edited but now you can start with a base file that is already over 80% accurate. This revolution is now coming to transcripts and alternative text. Matthew provides helpful prompts that you can adapt to your workflow. #accessiblity https://lnkd.in/gbSFzfP6

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Who likes free stuff?! Me, me, me 🙋‍♂️ Generation Australia welcomes everyone to join our free 14-week course for web development. This inclusive opportunity is perfect for those looking to upskill and venture into the world of digital products. Moreover, we provide dedicated #mentorship to neurodivergent individuals, ensuring they have the support they need to succeed. Given the staggering statistic that 4 out of 5 #autistic individuals are currently unemployed, this course could be the catalyst for a promising new career in web development. https://lnkd.in/gZxFzYn7 Aron Mercer, thanks for pointing this my way. Xceptional #ActuallyAutistic #Autism #Autistic #AutismAdvocate #Advocate #Advocacy #ADHD #AuDHD #ASD #AutismSpectrumDisorder #DEI #DisabilityRights #Disability #Inclusion #Diversity #Neurodiversity #Neurodivergent #NDIS #LivingOnTheSpectrum #Training #WebDeveloper #Developer #DEI #FreeStuff

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At the University of Newcastle’s Centre for Law and Social Justice for a Human Rights Symposium today. My talk = #Neurotechnology + #HumanRights in #Australia - Keen to see what people think about challenges of #neurotech #BCI #braincomputerinterface #emergingtechnology #law #neurorights #neuroscience

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Check out these 2 roles!

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Indeed a very sad state of affairs for International Education in Australia. For those who have no involvement or exposure to the industry, it might appear that it is international students that are causing the accommodation crisis (as if most of them can afford the median rent of 700AUD per week in Sydney prices!). Yet the government is conveniently omitting the contribution of international education to the finanical wellbeing of Australia, the jobs that international students are willing to do that an average Australian would not take up and rather go to Centerlink, and a huge impact that lack of immigration clarity and consistency has had on regional educators such as UNE that is the largest employer in the area, or private providers across the country that employ thousands of people. The industry that used to be the pride and joy of Australia, as much as Australian tourism, is now in deep deep crisis.

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This is an interesting talk highlighting some of the issues that can occur on a website when an accessibility overlay is used. #accessibility https://lnkd.in/gSyJF5WF

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Our new article is now up on Digital Humanities Quarterly (DHQ) - 'Towards a National Data Architecture for Cultural Collections: Designing the Australian Cultural Data Engine.' https://lnkd.in/gmeiWQyY This article summarises the methods & innovations of a 2-year ARC project that established theoretical and technical frameworks for better understanding the platforms and uses of cultural data (mostly in the Australian context but also more broadly). I'm really proud of what we achieved in this project in a relatively short period of time, and hope the work presented in this article can be put to good use in ongoing, collaborative scholarship on cultural data. #digitalhumanities #GLAM #culturaldata

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