Spontaneous Inclusive Designers: Perceptions, Histories, Attitudes and Influences

Fostering inclusive design is not easy considering uneven attention in design education to teaching about diversity, disability, design-for-all, and universal design. Inclusive design means to design for/with as many people as possible who embody the widest range of abilities with a myriad of life experiences. Our objectives are the following: (1) identify how design professionals talk spontaneously about inclusive design and (2) trace the sociocultural capital that has the potential to inform designing and teaching practices. Fourteen design professionals, who are practitioners and teachers simultaneously, from nine counties and seven locations, were independently interviewed about design practice, processes, and education. This research differs from more controlled approaches (e.g., protocol analysis, direct inquiries about inclusion, disability, diversity) in that it accepts that data are largely driven by negotiated discussions between researchers and interviewees. This approach is invaluable when investigating more abstract research questions like perceptions of the design profession. Data analyses of verbatim transcriptions of individual 2- to 3.5-hour interviews were coded for direct references and indirect inferences related to inclusive design. These interviews produced stories of designers’ educational backgrounds, experience in practice, and influences (i.e., individuals, other resources). The resulting data are rich narratives about designing and design teaching that reflect the personal values, beliefs and actions of the interviewees. Out of our fourteen interviewees, eleven spontaneously discussed inclusion, diversity, disability, inclusive design, design-for-all, and/or universal design. It also reveals that our interviewees have deep, intimate connections and experiences with disability in some way (e.g., family member, friend, or through school/work), rather than specific education in inclusive design. They also discuss how these experiences are transformed into being a design professional. Our presentation promises to center the voices of our interviewees towards better understanding how people’s sociocultural capital influences attitudes and behaviors connected to inclusion and diversity.