Accessibility Milestone: Ivanhoe Train Station

After years of advocacy and a concerted community campaign, we’re pleased to share that Tactile Ground Surface Indicators (TGSI) will be installed at Ivanhoe Station next month, May 2025. This announcement follows a meeting this morning with Hon. Gabrielle Williams MP, Minister for Transport Infrastructure, and Hon. Anthony Carbines MP, Ivanhoe’s local member of Parliament. 

This upgrade is long overdue. Out of 222 train stations in Melbourne’s Metro network, 196 have TGSI implemented (although some only have it installed on one side). Despite years of polite phone calls and emails from Lilly’s family and her orientation & mobility aide, Ivanhoe Station remained overlooked. It was only through this campaign, supported by over 10,000 petition signatures, that the issue gained the attention it deserved.

The works will involve significant upgrades to the platform, integrated into an existing scheduled weekend line shutdown at the end of May.

Thank you to everyone who signed, shared, and supported this campaign. Your voices combined with Lilly and her family & supporter's advocacy made this happen. ❤️ 

📋 Petition:  https://www.change.org/IvanhoeStationAccessibility 

🌟 More about Lilly: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/vision-australia_the-message-i-want-to-spread-to-other-young-activity-7272791746793619457-Dm__ 

🥳 Hon. Gabrielle Williams announcement this morning: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18nQmc3S4m/

💡 Case Study outlining behind-the-scenes on the ENVEE Digital website: https://enveedigital.au/case-studies/grassroots-advocacy/

Read More

Digital strategy at the executive level

I’ve sat in boardrooms on both sides of the table – as an internal Head of IT and as an external advisor. I’ve also completed the Australian Institute of Company Directors “Foundations of Directorship” course. The pattern is consistent: technology gets treated as operational support rather than part of digital strategy.

IT appears on the agenda when something’s broken or budget’s needed. The rest of the time, technology decisions happen elsewhere – usually in response to immediate problems rather than strategic planning.

Read the full article 

This article was first published on the ENVEE Digital blog. 

Read More

Challenging Assumptions

Yesterday I read an ABC News article about Australian attitudes toward Elon Musk. That wasn’t what caught my attention though.

The poll data showed that 16% of respondents had never heard of Bill Gates, and 20% had never heard of Jeff Bezos.

Seriously? Having worked in IT and digital for over 30 years, this floored me. These are household names in my professional world. Apparently not for a significant portion of the Australian population. Who are these people?! 🤔

Read the full article 

This article was first published on LinkedIn and is also on the ENVEE Digital blog. 

Read More

Accessibility: Ivanhoe Train Station

Hi there, 

My friend's daughter Lilly, who is totally blind and achieved an outstanding 98.6 ATAR in 2024, is starting at the University of Melbourne in 2025 and her local train station is inaccessible and dangerous for blind and low-vision users. 

My friends have been trying to raise this as a safety issue with Public Transport Victoria and politicians at local, state and federal level SINCE 2022, to no avail. 

Ivanhoe Station and Heidelberg Station are both designated Premium stations on the Hurstbridge line, and also the only two stations on the Hurstbridge line without Tactile Ground Surface Indicators. (Those little raised dots you find throughout public spaces.) Heidelberg Station is outside a major hospital precinct! 

These tactile markers let those that are blind or have low vision use the public transport system safely. Without them it’s practically too dangerous for them to use these two train stations. 

We've set up a petition and we're hoping "people power" will assist in drawing attention to and ultimately resolving this unsafe and frankly discriminatory situation. Everyone has the right to travel safely and independently. Please help us by signing and sharing this petition! TIA ☺️ 

📋 Petition:  https://www.change.org/IvanhoeStationAccessibility 

🌟 More about Lilly: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/vision-australia_the-message-i-want-to-spread-to-other-young-activity-7272791746793619457-Dm__ 

Read More

AI innovation for business: beyond the hype

AI is everywhere. Every vendor pitch includes it. Every conference has sessions about it. AI innovation is the latest hype cycle in full swing, complete with obviously AI-generated stock images (like the one on this article).

For mid-sized businesses, the question isn’t “Should we use AI?” but “What AI innovation actually makes sense for our business, and what’s just expensive distraction?”

Having worked in IT for 30 years and recently completed an MBA focusing on Design Thinking, I’ve seen enough technology hype cycles to recognise the pattern. Some AI applications genuinely solve problems. Most are solutions looking for problems to justify their existence.

Read the full article

This article was first published on LinkedIn and is also on the ENVEE Digital blog. 

Read More