Inclusive Design Practices

A few years ago, I wrote a blog post on Inclusive Interactions. Since then, I've learned a lot more about how Interaction design (IxD) shapes the way people engage with digital products and services.

Culture, People, Process " Strategic design is about applying the principles of traditional design to “big picture” systemic challenges such as healthcare, education and climate change. It redefines how problems are approached and aims to deliver more resilient solutions." - Dan Hill - Strategy plays an important, if not critical role in the success and outcome of accessibility goals and plans. This is true of business, life, career, and it’s foundational training for th

Cliff sharing some knowledge with me When I was much younger, doctors told me I couldn’t have prosthetics because I had hands and they had never seen someone like me wear prosthetics. So, with some help from my good friends at the War Amps , I did some research and found a picture of two identical twins from Germany who just like me had short arms and were fitted with prosthetic arms. The key message here is access to information is a powerful thing; so, don’t skip your desk

Words Matter Speaking, writing and reading are integral to my everyday life. If you haven’t guessed by now, to say I read a lot is probably an understatement. Having grown up in a small town near Stratford, Ontario, Canada, I learned from a very young age that language is a powerful, powerful thing. It is a tool that can be used to either include or exclude someone. Being able to communicate is not the same as having language. Having language means that you are able to commun

...my disability was not a problem that I need to solve. That disability itself is just a mismatched interaction between the features of a person’s body and the features of the environment in which they live. It also taught me that sometimes we focus on the wrong thing. Instead of trying to fix the features of my body, I started looking at adjusting the features of my environment, which resulted in much happier outcomes.

”In visual perception, a colour is almost never seen as it really is […] This fact makes colour the most relative medium in art.” — Joseph Alberts, Interaction of Color, 1963 - The Dress Remember the dress from 5 or 6 years ago… you know the one.. Was it blue and black or was it white and gold? This little colour illusion reminded us all that colour is almost never seen as it really is, which is precisely why we should never use colour alone to distinguish something. “We all

“What do I do if I say or do the wrong thing?” This is the first question I almost always get asked when talking to anyone about ableism or disability. Here’s my open and honest thoughts. We have to start by getting comfortable with having uncomfortable conversations. We are going to make mistakes… we are not perfect, we are human. My grandfather use to always tell me that the first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem. We can’t even begin to address ableism

“Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.“ — Herbert Simon — A few years ago, when I joined the digital design team at RBC, I was introduced to this quote by Herbert Simon, “Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.“ One day during a workshop, a designer came up to me and asked “Are you a designer?”. I stumbled over my words and probably gave the mo

I'm a little late in posting this. However, in celebration of #GAAD2020, and the upcoming National Accessibility Week (NAAW), Daniel Dafoe and I thought it would be a great idea to reflect back on the last year, and give you some tips on how to run an inclusive guild. Back in 2012, Spotify released a whitepaper talking about how they scaled their company. One of the ideas they introduced was a community of practice called a ‘guild’. Here’s how they describe it: A Guild is a