We have run many events since 2021, including monthly community events and a 6 day online conference in 2021.
Throughout 2022 and 2023, we ran 7 Group Trouble Shooting events, which are adapted from Lean Coffee Methods. Participants wrote questions they had related to inclusive design and research. As a group, we would discuss them.
Topics ranged from research practices, to advocating within teams, to the personal challenges of doing this work. Each one would be different yet rewarding as a trusting environment was cultivated.
In October 2021, we hosted our first 6 day online conference. Here is the overall programme with all of the talks.
On the first day of the conference, the following video will be sent to you by email with the conference opener video so you can watch it in your own time.
You will also be able to join the Slack channel to say hello to everyone and introduce yourself!
"Looking out" is a group of talks that describe learning from other disciplines to deliver more inclusive design and research practices. Talks are followed by a live Q+A.
Design outcomes informed by trauma-informed practices can shift power dynamics in the research phase and yield outcomes that afford space for continuous consent building and relational processes in support of diverse user needs.
For decades we've been designing products for an average person that does not exist. As society has continued to evolve towards individualism we must design with intersectionality in mind to serve increasingly diverse markets.
Hear about how two user researchers put users at the centre of their planning, recruitment & research design to curate a sense of psychological safety for participants and the researchers.
Why is creating a more just, equitable, and inclusive tech industry so difficult? The short answer: there is no silver bullet for inclusion! The reality of designing experiences is that they are shaped by many individuals who make countless seemingly inconsequential decisions that shape a result.
"Looking at our everyday" is a group of talks that are looking at daily user research and design processes. Each speaker references different components of the journey - from the recruitment email you send, to the test you run, and to the font you use. Along each step, a speaker highlights how we can make these processes more inclusive and accessible. Talks are followed by a live Q+A.
Use content design to make your research content more inclusive and accessible. By increasing accessibility, we increase participation. This contributes to ethical and equitable research.
"Nothing about us without us”: to design truly accessible products, the voices of people with disabilities must be heard in every aspect of user research and design. In this talk, Samuel Proulx, Accessibility Evangelist at Fable, will discuss how best to make these voices heard. We will show some of the ways inclusive design is done well, and some of the ways it goes wrong.
In this talk, we'll explore ways to shift co-creation workshops towards equity.
For 500 years publishing has been designed for a general audience, often missing specific considerations for people with varied vision. For this talk, I’d like to discuss the current state of research on font design for low vision.
Care/Community/Action! is a generative card set that facilitates the examination and reimagining of material cultures and designed environments through a lens of care.
Join our panel discussion to hear from leaders within inclusive design. Learn about their strategies towards advocating for inclusion. At the end, there will be time for participants to ask questions as well.
Kate Kalcevich is the Head of Services at Fable, a leading accessibility testing platform powered by people with disabilities. Kalcevich is an experienced accessibility leader and disability advocate with an extensive career. She most recently led digital accessibility efforts at Canada Post. Previously, Kalcevich held a series of progressively senior roles in the Ontario public service, including in product, user experience, and design roles. In recent years, she has focused on change management to increase the accessibility capabilities of organizations.
Shabira has extensive experience of designing, implementing and evaluating health inequalities and digital health innovations. Working to tackle health inequity, Shabira has advised the private sector, local authorities, health systems, government bodies, service commissioners and charities on how to build equitable innovations, with a focus on inclusion, sustainability and impact.
Shabira is currently doing her Masters in Public Health, exploring how to democratise access to digital literacy and personal data to improve health outcomes.
Co-founder of Queer Design Club
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An exploration of relationship-building and design during a pandemic This roundtable will reflect on our positionality as public servants – how easy it is to break than mend trust in the age of COVID-19. We’ll explore how we’ve tried (and failed) to responsibly engage with communities often overlooked and under-supported by institutions and the value of reciprocal, sustained relationships with community partners to rebuild and regain trust.
Even if every designer and researcher dedicated themselves to an inclusive practice, it would not be enough without an inclusive workplace and industry. Join our speakers in "Looking within" to hear about their experiences within the workplace and the ways that they have advocated for a more inclusive workplaces. Talks will be followed by a live Q+A.
Women of colour face unique barriers in the workplace due to the rigidity of unjust systems. We need to redesign the state of work and create inclusive spaces and environments that support their needs and goals.
As a UX Researcher poorly designed UX is hard not to notice. As a disabled user, it is a daily struggle. We'll talk about the impacts of inaccessible design and how you can begin today to make digital spaces inclusive.
Simone Wright created Parting The Roots after experiencing a misguided Diversity and Inclusion training that misinformed employees about Black hair. Now, Simone is working to ensure that people understand these nuances because whether you curl it or straighten it, dye it or braid it, hair is a very personal and important part of ones identity. For some, it is their crowning glory and others, a constant battle.
We all have varying visions of what the future of inclusivity in design looks like and this can create a challenge as we navigate together towards an improved future state. In this strategic planning workshop, we’ll explore our collective understanding of the past and envision possible futures of inclusive design
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Now that we have learnt skills of inclusive design practices and how they can be enhanced, we will hear from speakers in how they have championed inclusive design through case studies. Talks will be followed by a live Q+A.
When carrying out research, how do we capture and design for emotional, sometimes painful, experiences? This talk explores a case study of a respectful, inclusive approach for creating safe spaces within human-centred design when working with people with chronic health conditions.
India is not a diabetic friendly society, there is a lot of taboo especially around Type 1 Diabetes. We are designing for supporting the mothers who are battling this taboo amongst other things to manage the condition on their kids behalf.
A story about how I helped make the national booking service for COVID-19 vaccination appointments inclusive for people of any sex or gender.
By understanding research through a participant’s perspective, we can design better experiences while delivering worthwhile findings. At the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), we’ve done the work to understand what it’s like to participate in our research. Through this talk, I’ll showcase how we mapped our participant experience and its impact on the way we do research now.
We were delighted to have such a generous sponsor support us through our first year of the conference.
This conference is made possible with generous sponsorship from Fable, who are digital accessibility and research experts.
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