Last chance to register for upcoming seminars

Date and time: Tuesday 28 April 2026, 11.00am - 12.00pm AEST 
Topic: Accessbility in Evaluation Reporting: A Deep Dive into the Use Phase of the Toolkit
Location: online, via Zoom. Details will be emailed to registrants just prior to the start time
Presenters: Melinda Nicholls |Assistant Director Evaluation, Department of Health, Disability and Ageing | Kimberley Grima | Director, Disability Reform Engagement, Department of Health, Disability and Ageing and Ruth Nicholls | Director Evaluation Leadership, Australian Centre for Evaluation
Register online by: 27 April 2026

Event description:

This cross jurisdictional online event explores accessibility in evaluation reporting, with a practical focus on the Use phase of the Toolkit for Engaging People with Disability in Evaluation.

The Toolkit is a practical guide designed to support evaluators to meaningfully engage people with disability across all phases of evaluation — from design and data collection through to reporting and use. Grounded in lived experience perspectives and aligned with Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021–2031, the Toolkit aims to help evaluators move beyond consultation towards more inclusive, participatory and accessible evaluation practice.

First introduced to AES members at the 2025 AES Annual Conference, this session builds on that foundation by moving from principles to practice. This session briefly introduces the Toolkit as a whole and moves to a focused deep dive into the Use phase, examining how evaluators can apply the Toolkit’s guidance to make evaluation findings more accessible, usable and meaningful for diverse audiences.

The session will step through concrete, real world approaches to accessible evaluation reporting and communication, including practical tips, examples and lessons learned from government practice. Drawing on experience developing accessible documents including Easy Read translations, the presenters will reflect on what accessibility looks like in practice, the challenges involved, and what works.

The session will cover:
• What accessibility means in the context of evaluation reporting and use
• How to apply the Toolkit’s guidance in the Use phase of evaluation
• Practical strategies for making findings clearer, more inclusive and more likely to be used
• Common challenges in accessible reporting and what works in practice

This session will be of particular interest to evaluators working in government, policy and disability contexts, and to anyone seeking to strengthen the accessibility, relevance and use of evaluation findings.

Presenter details:

Ruth Nicholls is the Director of Evaluation Leadership, Policy and Capability at the Australian Centre for Evaluation, where she leads efforts to strengthen evaluation culture, capability and practice across the APS. Ruth has over 20 years of experience working in evaluation and research roles both inside and outside government.

Kimberley Grima is the Director of the Disability Reform Engagement team at the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. Her team supports accessible and inclusive communications for disability reform engagement activities and capability uplift in the department and broader public service. Kim has 15 years’ experience in government, mainly in data roles, working the last 4 in disability.

Melinda Nicholls is the Assistant Director of Evaluation for the Department of Health, Disability, and Aging, where she supports evaluation capability, practice and quality across the disability and carers portfolio. She has over 20 years’ experience working across the community sector, international development and government. Melinda brings together professional expertise and lived experience to her evaluation practice.

If this seminar is recorded, it will be available on the member portal only.

This event is jointly organised & hosted by the Victorian and Australian Capital Territory Regional Networks of the AES. Our seminar series provides an opportunity for you to meet with AES members and others in the evaluation community and to share and learn from the experiences of fellow evaluators.

Seminar start times:

VIC, ACT, NSW, TAS, QLD: 11.00am

SA, NT: 10.30am

WA: 9.00am

New Zealand: 1.00pm

For other time zones please go to https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

Please ensure you have access to your email address just prior to the start time to access Zoom details. Please also check your email address is correct on your registration form before submitting. Thanks.

Date and time: Thursday 30 April, 4.00pm-5.30pm AEST
Topic: What can ACE do for evaluators?
Presenter: Eleanor Williams | Australian Centre for Evaluation
Venue: Via Zoom. Details will be emailed to registrants just prior to the start time.
Register online by: 29 April 2026

Event description:

Join us for a discussion-focused session with the Australian Centre for Evaluation (ACE). This event is your chance to hear directly from the ACE team about the range of resources they’ve developed—and continue to build—and how they can be used to support evaluation practice across Australia.
Through an initial short presentation, the ACE team will share:
• An overview of the range of resources ACE has developed and is continuing to build
• Insights into which resources are most widely accessed and feedback from the field
• Ideas for how tools like the published evaluations library can be used for research, analysis, or shaping ongoing work

Following the presentation, we’ll open the floor for an informal Q&A and discussion. This is a great opportunity for practitioners, researchers, and anyone interested in evaluation to connect with ACE, ask questions, provide feedback, and share experiences in a welcoming and collaborative setting.

Presenter details:

Eleanor Williams, A/g First Assistant Secretary, Macroeconomic Analysis and Policy Division.
Eleanor joined the Australian Centre for Evaluation in October 2023. Eleanor holds Masters level qualifications in Public Policy and Management and Evaluation from the University of Melbourne.
She has worked in a variety of senior management and executive roles in Government. This includes roles as the Executive Director of Strategy and Policy and Director of the Centre for Evaluation and Research Evidence in the Victorian Department of Health, as well as the Interim CEO at the Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing. Eleanor is a former board member of the Australian Evaluation Society and co-founded the Australian Public Sector Evaluation Network in 2019. She is currently undertaking PhD with supervisors at the University of Queensland and University College London with a focus on evidence use in fast-paced policy environments.

If this seminar is recorded, it will be available on the member portal only.

This free event has been organised by the NSW Regional Network of the AES. Our seminar series provides an opportunity for you to meet with AES members and others in the evaluation community and to share and learn from the experiences of fellow evaluators. 

Session start times:

• NSW, VIC QLD, ACT, TAS: 4.00pm

• SA, NT: 3.30pm

• WA: 2.00pm

• New Zealand: 6.00pm

For other time zones please go to https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

Please ensure you have access to your email address just prior to the start time to access Zoom details. Please also check your email address is correct on your registration form before submitting. Thanks.