Audience members seated at round tables applaud during a Disability Tech Summit 2025 session, illuminated by purple and blue stage lighting. The room is full, with people smiling and engaged as they watch the presentation.

11 November 2025 | Sydney Town Hall

On 11 November, more than 300 people from 10 countries gathered with us at Sydney Town Hall for Australia’s first Remarkable Disability Tech Summit. This global community arrived ready to re-wire the future of Disability Tech.

Throughout the day, we explored Re-Wire the Future through keynotes, panels, workshops and global perspectives.

Below are some of the key highlights, with more stories to follow in the coming weeks.

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Keynote: From Margins to Mainstream: Reframing Accessibility as Inclusion

Matt Pierri - Founder, Sociability

A keynote presenter using a wheelchair presents on stage at the Disability Tech Summit 2025, seated in front of a large pink and purple backdrop that reads “Re-imagine. Re-build. Re-wire the future.” A sign language interpreter stands to the right, and live captions are displayed on a screen above the stage.

Matt encouraged all of us to rethink accessibility not as a compliance requirement, but as a core design principle that unlocks innovation.

Key takeaways:

Accessibility begins with people and inclusion, not paperwork.
Compliance is not enough if the lived experience is still inaccessible.
Accessibility influences how people feel and signals who is welcomed.
Most people acquire disability later in life, which means accessibility benefits everyone.
Many everyday technologies were originally created by or for disabled people.

In Conversation: Big Tech Designing for Inclusion

Aubrey Blanche - Founder, The Mathpath

Steve King - Impact Investor & Startup Advisor (ex-Atlassian, Canva & Yahoo)

Two presenters sit on stage in conversation at the Disability Tech Summit 2025, framed by a large pink and purple backdrop reading “Re-imagine. Re-build. Re-wire the future.” The woman on the left, wearing a bright blue top, listens attentively, while the man on the right gestures as he speaks. A small table with water bottles and flowers sits between them, and audience members are visible in the foreground.

Who better to discuss the role of big tech designing for inclusion than Aubrey and Steve, who met while working together in the early days of Atlassian. In an open conversation, they reflected on what they learned about leadership, ethics and where accessibility sits in your business….plus much more.

Some of the key themes:

Change often begins with a small group inside an organisation who are willing to take action.
Accessibility becomes effective when responsibility is shared across leadership, design, engineering and product teams.
Cultural change is human work and requires persistence and trust.
Accessibility drives innovation and that leads to better products for everyone.

Panel: The Workplace that Adapts to You

Amy Whalley - Chief Executive Officer, Australian Disability Network

Melanie Tran - Designer, Innovator, Activist., Nous Group

Professor Alistair McEwan, Ainsworth Chair of Technology and Innovation at Cerebral Palsy Alliance and University of Sydney.

Vivien Mullan (Moderator)

A panel discussion takes place on stage at the Disability Tech Summit 2025 beneath a large screen titled “The workplace that adapts to you,” listing speakers Amy Whalley, Melanie Tran, Alistair McEwan, and Viv Mullan. Four panellists sit in armchairs on a pink and purple backdrop reading “Re-imagine. Re-build. Re-wire the future.” A sign language interpreter stands to the right, and audience members are visible in the foreground.

This session explored how AI and emerging tech create the opportunity for workplaces to adapt to people rather than expecting people to adapt to them.

Key ideas raised:

Inclusion must show up in everyday behaviours, not only in policy documents.
Lived experience is influencing the next generation of workplace technologies.
Human-centred design requires listening, sharing power and designing with people.
The next decade must focus on meaningful measurement and closing the digital divide.

Postcard Session: Global Perspectives and Practical Insights with the Inclusive Innovation Network

Bernard Chiira - CEO and Founder, AT4D, Kenya

Pascal Bijleveld - CEO, ATscale, the Global Partnership for Assistive Technology, hosted by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)

Prateek Madhav - Co-Founder and CEO, Assistech Foundation, India

Varun Chandak - Founder and Executive Director, Access to Success, Canada

Cai Cong - Inclusion X, an initiative of One Plus One Disability Union, China

Four presenters stand together smiling for a photo at the Disability Tech Summit 2025. One person uses forearm crutches, and all wear Summit lanyards as they pose in front of the stage area under purple lighting

A presenter stands on stage at the Disability Tech Summit 2025 holding a white cane, delivering a presentation in front of a large pink and purple backdrop reading “Re-imagine. Re-build. Re-wire the future.” A sign language interpreter stands to the right, and audience members watch from the foreground.

Travelling from Kenya, Toronto, Bangalore, Geneva and Shanghai, leaders from the Inclusive Innovation Network (+N) gave us a glimpse into their part of the world and how we can work together to accelerate Disability Tech innovation.

Key insights:

Disability innovation is growing rapidly across the world.
The Inclusive Innovation Network strengthens ecosystems by sharing knowledge and supporting startups to expand into new markets.
Lived experience must guide design, or products risk missing the mark.
Many people globally still lack access to essential assistive technology, but partnerships are starting to shift this.
More founders, investors and organisations are entering the disability innovation space and further investment is needed to maintain this momentum.

Designing for Reality: The Truth about Universal Design and User Feedback

Dave Belcher - Senior Lived Experience Consultant, DisCo

Katie McDermott - Founder, See Me Please

Stewart Hay - Co-Founder and Managing Director, Intopia

Athalia Foo - Senior Strategist and Designer, Today (Moderator)

A panel discussion takes place on stage at the Disability Tech Summit 2025 beneath a large screen titled “Designing for reality: The truth about universal design and user feedback,” listing speakers Dave Belcher, Katie McDermott, Stewart Hay, and Athalia Foo. Four panellists sit on stage against a pink and purple backdrop reading “Re-imagine. Re-build. Re-wire the future.” A sign language interpreter stands to the right, and the audience is visible in the foreground.

This panel unpacked the difference between idealistic universal design and the realities of designing for diverse humans.

Key ideas:

Universal design is not one size fits all, and real world use varies widely.
There is no typical user and design decisions involve genuine trade offs.
Progress is more valuable than perfection, especially for smaller teams.
User feedback can transform products and reveal barriers designers may not anticipate.
Co-design is relational and ongoing, not a single activity.
Accessibility must be maintained continuously or features can quickly become inaccessible.

Founder Fireside: Faster Together - How Startups and Giants Innovate Together

Adam Jahnke - CEO & Co-Founder, Umps Health

David Deneher - Founder, Field of Vision

Madeleine Scavone - Founder, Speckles

Zara Fulton - Head of Investment, Remarkable (Moderator)

Four presenters sit on stage for a panel discussion at the Disability Tech Summit 2025, framed by a large pink and purple backdrop reading “Re-imagine. Re-build. Re-wire the future.” The moderator on the left holds a microphone, while the three panellists sit beside a small table with flowers and water bottles. Audience members are visible in the foreground.

Three founders with three very different experiences of partnering with ‘giants’, with great success stories. David Deneher travelled from Dublin to share his innovation that caught the attention of Telstra and amazed fans at Marvel Stadium.

Key ideas:

Many partnerships begin with lived experience rather than technology.
Large organisations can help startups grow by offering access to users, environments and expertise.
Collaboration leads to progress that neither partner could achieve alone.
Clear purpose keeps partnerships focused and avoids activity without impact.
When these relationships work well, the benefits extend across communities, sectors and countries.