We celebrated Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) at SydDT #126 on Tuesday night. We were lucky to have a great lineup of speakers with Kate Jenkins and Kath Hamilton from Remarkable and Pawel Wodkowski from Atlassian‘s accessibility team.
Kath Hamilton led an insightful fireside chat with Max Burt OAM from WheelEasy and Carolyn Mee from Sound Scouts. All three are alumni of Remarkable’s Accelerator program.
We also heard from a few of the disability tech startup founders in the current Remarkable Launcher cohort… Josh Aarons from Squidly, Mark Gibbs and Nadine Dundas from Visitex, and Kathleen Nicholls from Safe Ride.
So many great insights and so many ways to get involved. Here are some ways…
- The Remarkable Launcher 2026 Showcase is on 12pm Tuesday, 26 May. It’s free and online. Register now!
- Check out and support Squidly, Visitex, Safe Ride, Sound Scouts, WheelEasy and all the other great disability tech startups
- Give Pawel’s a11y.md a go to bake in some accessibility standards into your prototyping
- Keep talking, thinking, and learning about digital access and inclusion – not just during GAAD but in our daily practice
Thanks to everyone who came along and made it such a fun night. Couldn’t make it or just want to relive it? Watch it now.
Thanks to Ben Crothers from Bright Pilots for his awesome sketchnoting this month… and a shout out and thanks to Bex Haar for another great write-up with her reflections and key takeaways.
A massive thanks to Pawel Wodkowski from Atlassian, Kath Hamilton & Kate Jenkins from Remarkable, and Dynamic4 for making it all happen.
Our next meetup is SydDT #127: The Human Loop – Keeping the Customer at the Core of AI on Thursday, 11 June with Tarra van Amerongen, Alex Zinoviev, Riley Coleman, and Kristin de la Fuente sharing their observations and insights… brought to you by Thoughtworks, GenAI Lab, and Dynamic4. Grab your ticket!
Meetup Announcement
Tuesday, 19 May 2026 @ 6pm. Atlassian, Sydney
We’re stoked to be collaborating with Remarkable Disability Tech Accelerator and Atlassian to celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) this year.
We’re lucky to have an amazing lineup of speakers – and this is a great opportunity to meet and hear from people working directly on inclusive and accessible solutions.
We’ll have short talks by Kate Jenkins & Kath Hamilton from Remarkable and Pawel Wodkowski from Atlassian‘s accessibility team… with some founders from the current Remarkable Launcher cohort sharing their story/pitch.
Kath Hamilton will then host a fireside chat/panel with Max Burt OAM from WheelEasy and Carolyn Mee from Sound Scouts… all three are alumni of Remarkable’s Accelerator program.
The purpose of GAAD is to “get everyone talking, thinking, and learning about digital access and inclusion, and the more than one billion people with disabilities/impairments”.
GAAD is on 21 May, so we’re celebrating a couple of days early… and for SydDT regulars, yes we’re doing this on a Tuesday!
Remarkable’s mission is to “empower disability tech innovators by providing the training, capital, and networks they need to create a future that is accessible, equitable and inclusive for all”. Accessibility is also core to Atlassian’s mission – to unleash the potential of every team.
Come join us for some fun conversations with interesting people in and around the design thinking community. New members are welcome!
Speakers
Kate Jenkins
Head of Community & Partnerships, Remarkable
Kath Hamilton
Entrepreneur in Residence, Remarkable
Pawel Wodkowski
Lead Accessibility Designer, Atlassian
Pawel is an Accessibility Lead Designer at Atlassian with over 20 years of design experience, focusing on integrating accessible design practices across their global design teams. In his free time, he’s a Zumba instructor.
Max Burt OAM
Founder & Trustee, WheelEasy
Carolyn Mee
Founder & CEO, Sound Scouts
Event Sponsors
This event is brought to you by Atlassian, Remarkable, and Dynamic4.
We take photos and record our events for documentation and promo purposes. Just let us know if you prefer not to be featured.
