At the AWC Seattle Annual Awards Dinner on June 20, guests recognized scholarship recipients Marta Gamez and Sarah Appel, celebrated Star Award winner Lorraine Howell and heard from keynote speaker Margaret Price, Principal Design Strategist at Microsoft. Photos of the event are below.

Margaret’s engaging talk went over the principles of inclusive design, while also illustrating the extensive impact it has had on our daily lives. While a summary can’t compete with hearing the words straight from Margaret, the mission behind inclusive design is just too good not to share.

Inclusive design is about solving problems by first recognizing a designer’s personal bias. It is more than just having a particular political stance or religious upbringing it is understanding that people design based on their personal experiences, which likely excludes a segment of the population. For example, if I am right-handed, I may design concepts that exclude the left-handed population without intending to. Everyone has a disability, whether it is race, age, sex or physical. Inclusive design is about designing for everyone.

Every individual brings a unique perspective to the design process. It is people who are at the center of innovation, and it is people who adapt, replicate or improve upon these creations. Just look at Facebook. It started as a way for college students to network, but now grandma can keep up with old classmates and her family in another state.

Designing for a disability provides opportunity for all. For example, closed captioning was created for the deaf community. Now, closed captioning can be found in airports or in sports bars because even people who are able to hear find it useful if they watch with the volume muted, or are just watching across a room. Designing for the extreme allowed for application to people temporary disabled due to circumstance.

For further reading recommended by Margaret:

• Inclusive 101 toolkit by Microsoft Design
• “Design Meets Disability” by Graham Pullin