As you may have noticed, there’s a growing focus on inclusion in the tech industry. Specifically, there’s a rise in the use of the word “inclusion.” Companies are creating new executive roles to lead inclusion initiatives, promoting their inclusivity in marketing campaigns, and, crucially, making changes in their products to include overlooked communities.

But what does inclusion actually mean — especially when it’s so feverishly applied to broad areas of society? The word is as axiomatic as it is unspecific. I’ve wrestled with this ambiguity as director of inclusive design at Microsoft, in my own independent design practice, and while…

My first mistake in writing a book was assuming that I’d simply expand on stuff that I’d already written. I had spent years researching, practicing, and writing about inclusive product development. My team and I had worked with thousands of engineers, designers, and leaders to apply these methods to their products. The toolkit we published was raising awareness of inclusive design across the tech industry and had taken on a life of its own.

Yet, immediately after signing a contract to deliver a manuscript in six months, all I could think about was how much more I needed to learn…

“Disability is a mismatched interaction between the features of a person’s body and the features of the environment in which they live” — World Health Organization, 2011 World Report on Disability

In April 2017, I left a perfectly good job at a large corporation to start my own company, dedicated to inclusive product development. One week later, MIT Press asked me if I would write a book on inclusive design. I agreed, without knowing exactly how I would make it happen.

This started a journey that transformed how I view myself, my work, and how technology shapes society. Or, more…

We all feel it — our technology feels like a century ahead of us, while our behaviors are reflective of decades before us. The systemic issues in the lack of inclusiveness in design, tech, and hiring reveals a profound cultural failure. But let’s flip it: it’s a shimmering possibility to show what better looks like, to do important work that will matter for the future we want to create.

We spoke to the Global Head of Design and Inclusion at WordPress.com, John Maeda, and Kat Holmes, Founder of KATA and Advisor to Automattic, on what the future of inclusiveness looks…

I’m sitting at the base of the White House. Public Enemy’s Fight the Power fills the air. The preamble of the Constitution is running through my head. And I feel, in this moment, anything is possible.

In his Thank You note, President Obama asserted that “the single most powerful word in our democracy is ‘We’”. Throughout his presidency this has been a persistent theme: progress happens when we work together.

But there’s more to our constitutional preamble.

We the people, in order to form a more perfect union…

In his 2008 iconic campaign speech A More Perfect Union, President Obama…

“Inclusive Design doesn’t mean you’re designing one thing for all people. You’re designing a diversity of ways to participate so everyone has a sense of belonging.” - Susan Goltsman, Founding Principal of MIG, Inc., co-author of Play for All Guidelines and The Inclusive City.

Where did you love to play as a child? Maybe it was a hill near your home. Or the fort you built out of boxes and blankets. Or, like me, a tower of climbing bars rising up from the asphalt behind your school.

I’ve been talking about playgrounds a lot lately. I’ve been sliding on a…