Panel: Making your communications accessible

RĀWĀ KARETAI

Rāwā, who connects to Waihōpai and Te Rūnanga o Ōtākou, has an extensive background in public relations, change management, project management, strategy and governance.

Having overcome significant adversity as a child—he was struck by a car and suffered severe injuries, needing extensive rehabilitation— Rāwā has a natural empathy and understanding of others. He has an ability to successfully bring together diverse people with different priorities and encourage them to work towards a common goal.

Rāwā currently works at the Ministry of Health as a Principal Advisor within the Disability Directorate. His work has mostly focused on the Cross-Government Disability System Transformation with a focus on strategic engagement and elevating disabled persons’ voices.

As part of New Zealand’s COVID-19 Response, Rāwā is also the Communications Director for both the All of Government team and the Disability Directorate. From early April 2020, Rāwā and his team worked in partnership with disabled people’s organisations and district health boards to ensure that critical information about COVID-19 was able to reach disabled communities.

Rāwā is also on the world board of ILGA (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association) as the International Bisexual Steering Committee Chairperson. ILGA is an international LGBTI organisation which lobbies for human rights in every country of the world, at the United Nations and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Rāwā is additionally the chair of Qtopia, Christchurch Heroes and is also involved with Rainbow Canterbury, Kahukura Pounamu, Hui Takatāpui.

HANNAH SLADE

Hannah has an MA in English, and has worked in Communications, Marketing, Events and Programme Management in diverse settings- including local government, language schools and libraries.

Hannah is passionate about the planet, people, and the belief that together we can make our corner of the world a better place. She considers herself lifelong learner, and on her bedside table you’ll find books about climate change, leadership, neuroscience, psychology, and social change – with a bit of science fiction thrown in for luck.

Hannah joined Be. Lab as the Be. Leadership Programme Manager in 2015, and has provided support to the Communications, Events and Marketing team since 2016.

She lives in Piha on the wild West Coast of Auckland with her partner, two human children and one furbaby - who everyday teach her about life, and the person she wants to be.

ARASH TAYEBI

Arash Tayebi is an entrepreneur and the CEO of Kara Technologies, a tech start-up based in Auckland.

Arash has a PhD in engineering from University of Auckland. He founded Kara Technologies in 2017, with the hope to improve accessibility to sign language for D/deaf people.

Arash and his team won best social enterprise category in the Auckland University Velocity program in 2017 and since then have received seed funding, expanded their team and created a minimum viable product. This product is an avatar (called Niki) who can sign and is backed by an AI engine.

So far they have created a small library of children’s books in New Zealand Sign Language (signed by Niki) and collaborated with international companies in entertainment.