Assistive Technology Accessibility Working Group
Membership Profile (DRAFT)
Date Document Revised: 25/06/10
Senior Manager, Learning and Work - Ian Taylor
Briefly describe the area that you work in and your role:
Learning and Work within Student Services includes the following services: Disability
Liaison Unit, Study and Learning Center, Career Development & Employment and RMIT
Lead.
Manager, Disability Liaison Unit – Rick Boffa
Briefly describe the area that you work in and your role:
The Manager is SSGs discipline leader in disability services including anti-discrimination
legislative compliance advice on inclusive learning practices. The Manager will effect
organisational change through the implementation of the University’s Disability Action Plan
(DAP) by providing strategic support to all areas of the University. The Manager provides
financial management of the Unit, contract management with external providers & has
primary responsibility for the University’s disability funding relationship with DEEWR.
The Manager is responsible for managing the DLU’s programs and daily activities, drafting
policy and external reports, interpreting and applying policy, legislation and Case Law, and
providing expert advice to staff and students on disability/equity related matters.
Assistive Technology Advisor – Martin Kelly
Briefly describe the area that you work in and your role:
I work at the Disability Liaison Unit, mainly with students who have a “print disability”. The
main focus of my role is to ensure that the learning environment is accessible through the
provision of assistive technology, accessible course materials and other learning
experiences.
.
Standard Operating Environment Architect – Hinh Tran
Briefly describe the area that you work in and your role:
Windows team in ITS Operations group. Our team is mainly responsible for the day to day
operation of windows servers infrastructure and SOE space.
Service Management Coordinator Operations Team - Russell Van Sanders
Briefly describe the area that you work in and your role:
Role basically revolves around Service Delivery for Infrastructure Services. You could
categorise it as quality assurance for Infrastructure. The services managed by
Infrastructure include Windows, Novell (file and print services), Unix, Mac, Data Centre &
SOE
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Senior Manager, Non Academic Portfolios - Fernando Silva
Briefly describe the area that you work in and your role:
Responsibility of looking after Audio Visual for the University, including Lectopia and
Videoconference, Desktop Support for the Non-Academic Areas, ITS managed labs and
the Relationship with NAP customers
Numbers of Computers & labs in your area
Around 2200 – Of these 200 are MAC’s
Building 8 level 3 Room 25 Student IT
Building 14 level 4 room 12 24 hour Under Graduate PC lab.
Building 28 level 3 room 2 24 hour Postgraduate centre 16 student PC's,
Building 12 Hub lab - 12 students Pc's
Specialised PC labs: B10 DLU & B12 S& L centre
Platforms:
MAC OS 10.5 and 10.6, PC XP
When/how often are SOE’s updated?
Images are being updated every semester. We haven’t had a new SOE since early last
year.
Are you happy for there to be a contact person in your area for students who are AT
users?
Yes - Open Access Lab – Bldg 8.3.25 for General IT problems but there is a proviso that
the team in this lab would need appropriate application training before being able to
provide assistance
Manager, Student IT Services- Michael Thomas
Briefly describe the area that you work in and your role:
I manage a unit in NAP that is responsible for the ITS Open Access labs, MSDN software for
eligible students and Student IT support counters, we are called Student IT Services
Numbers of Computers in your area
Around 195
Number of labs in your area
4 Open Access and 2 Specialised PC Labs + Kiosks
Challenges relating to assistive technology that have been experienced.
Compatibility issues with applications, hardware dependent issues, network licensing issues
Are you happy for there to be a contact person in your area for students who are AT users?
Yes. We do get the occasional student in this lab with special needs and always try to assist them
in General IT related issues, It should be noted that my staff have very little experience with
Adaptive technology.
Senior Manager, College of Science Engineering (SEH) Health IT - John Zylinski
Briefly describe the area that you work in and your role:
We provide IT support into the SEH College. Clinton is the Lab Co-ordinator and Tony is
the Image Co-ordinator.
Numbers and computers and labs
We have a total of 2261 computers in all of our labs consisting 1831 PC's and 430 Apple
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Macintosh (326 Macs are currently Windows only but I expect this to change)
We have 43 "General Access" labs and 60 "Specialist" labs.”
Platforms:
Various distributions of Linux such as; Fedora and Ubuntu
When and how often is the SOE’s updated in your area?
The SOE is normally updated twice a year. Once prior to the start of Semester 1 and again
for prior to the start of Semester 2, unless there is a critical correction or update required
What are the main challenges relating to assistive technology (AT) that have been
experienced in your area?
In recent images we have encountered an issue with the Windows system environment
variable “LSFORCEHOST”. The variable is used by Jaws assistive technology application
to direct the application to its license server location. The same licensing technology is
utilised by other software applications required by Schools. To ensure that the School
software functions correctly the Jaws license server value has been over written with the
value of the SEH license server location effectively disabling Jaws. Other assistive
technology application in the SOE have introduced an undesirable decrease in
performance.
Are you happy for there to be a contact person in your area for students who are AT
users?
Would prefer ITS helpdesk staff and the DLU.
Senior Manager, College of Design Social Context IT, - Laurie Davis
Briefly describe the area that you work in and your role.
The College of Design and Social Context covers the associated disciplines of social
sciences, education, media, fashion and textiles, project management, design and art.
There are approximately 20,000 students, 900 fulltime staff and 1500 sessional staff
across the three campus’s (City, Brunswick & Bundoora). There is a growing research
component with SIAL being the major research group. My role is to ensure that IT support
is given to the above and that the student computer lab spaces are fully functional.
Number of computers and labs in your area:
816 PCS 1068 MACS 86 labs
When and how often is the SOE’s updated in your area?
Twice per year for HE (prior to the commencement of each semester)
Annually for TAFE (unless there is a major request)
What are the main challenges relating to assistive technology (AT) that have been
experienced in your area?
Ensuring the applications work with AT
Are you happy for there to be a contact person in your area for students who are AT
users?
Yes, (for the purposes of) IT problems that they are experiencing and in conjunction with
yourselves developing tailor made solutions if need be.
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Senior Manager, College of Business IT - Jason Lunghusen
Briefly describe the area that you work in and your role.
ITS, in the College of Business. I’m the Senior Manager, Business IT which is a blend of
operations management and client relations management.
Number of computers in your area:
846 PCS in 25 labs
When and how often are the SOE’s updated in your area?
At least twice a semester, sometimes more often depending on demand.
What are the main challenges relating to assistive technology (AT) that have been
experienced in your area?
The intercept driver issues as discussed previously.
Are you happy for there to be a contact person in your area for students who are AT
users?
Yes (for) any matter, if I can’t directly assist them then I’ll do my best to find the right
person for them to talk to.
Systems Administrator, Mac - Peter Varitimidis
Briefly describe the area that you work in and your role.
Meaghan Botterill - Educational Technology Advancement Group (EduTAG )Senior
Coordinator, Education Technology Integration
Briefly describe the area that you work in and your role.
EduTAG is responsible for strategic leadership and implementation of educational
technologies across the university. As the Senior Coordinator Educational Technology
Integration, my primary role is to coordinate the integration of educational technologies into
learning and teaching pedagogy, practices and curricula across both sectors of the
university to support and articulate the university’s strategic directions. My current focus is
the introduction of ePortfolios across the university.
Student Representative from Business College- Borisut Padungpokkasoon
Describe your area of study and your interests.
I am an international student from Thailand studying Business Information Systems. I am
interested in accessible technology. In my studies so far I have found computer networking
to be the most interesting. I am blind and use JAWS.
Student Representative from College of Science Engineering & Health - Michael
Lescohier
Describe your area of study and your interests.
I’m studying an Associate Degree in Information Technology. I help friends fixing their
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computers and have also assisted staff fixing RMIT computers. My interest is in software
in general. I am vision impaired.
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