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Accessibility Advisory Committee Members

Portrait photograph of the State Library's Accessibility Advisory Committee

L to R, Mr Timothy Hart, Mr Mark Tonga, Mr Mark Kunach, Dr Naomi Malone, Dr Gaele Sobott, Dr Breda Carty

Dr Breda Carty

Breda is an Adjunct Fellow at Macquarie University, and a freelance researcher and historian. She worked for many years in deaf education – in school programs, teacher preparation programs, and in research and resource development. She is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. Dr Carty was the C. H. Currey Fellow at the State Library of NSW in 2017, researching the history of people with disability in Australia.

Mr Timothy Hart

Timothy's area of expertise is with inclusive technology and he has large amounts of experience in the provision of training and implementation of adapative technology. Timothy has previously served as Secretary and a Director of People with Disabilities Australia (PWDA) and as President and Treasurer of the Australian Learning Disability Association (ALDA).  

Mr Mark Kunach

Mark  is a Risk Management Officer with the Department of Education School Security Unit and a security professional with over 35 years experience. He serves as Chair of both the GBS Association of NSW Inc. and City of Parramatta Access Advisory Committee. He is Deputy Chair of  the Department of Education DEN (Disability Employment Network). Mark is also a member of Cumberland Council Safety and Access Committee, Crohns/Colitis Australia, Centre for Universal Design Australia (CUDA) and the Charcot Marie Tooth Association of Australia. 

Dr Naomi Malone

Naomi is an experienced advocate for disability inclusion. Since 2009, she has been involved in access and inclusion initiatives through the following roles:

  • Accessibility Producer for Australia's first universally accessible theatre production, which was awarded a national captioning award
  • Diversity Analyst at the Westpac Group, facilitating key changes in accessibility and managing its major sponsorship of the NSW Government's Don't Dis My Ability campaign
  • Project Manager, Deaf Arts Access Project at Accessible Arts NSW
  • Research Consultant, MQ Hearing Strategy for Learning and Teaching at Macquarie University
  • Deputy Chair, Australian Federation of Disability Organisations
  • Exhibition Curator, 'Access Leads to Inclusion: Disability at UTS'
  • Past member of inclusion advisory panels at the City of Sydney and Anzac Memorial Centenary Project
  • Current member of Access and Inclusion Advisory Panels at Australian Museum and Sydney Festival

In 2019-2020, Naomi developed UTS's Access and Inclusion Plan 2020-2024.

Profoundly deaf, she is a graduate in arts and laws from the University of Sydney and has a MA in Public History and a PhD in history from the University of Technology Sydney. 

Dr Gaele Sobott

Gaele is a writer and producer. She has published a range of acclaimed works including Colour Me Blue and My Longest Round, and recent short stories in Hecate, Verity La, Meanjin, Prometheus Dreaming, New Contrast and the anthology, Botswana Women Write (University of Kwazulu-Natal Press). She was awarded a 2020 City of Sydney Fellowship for her Dear Rosa video-poem project, and an Australia Council for the Arts Disability Mentoring Initiative grant to write poetry. She is founding director of Outlandish Arts, a disability-led, not-for-profit arts company.