Name
Building a Barrier-Free World: Integrating Accessibility, Lived Experience, and Systemic Design Speaker
Date
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Time
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Location Name
Kinnear Centre, Room KC103/105
Description

Accessibility aims to make systems usable by all, while systems thinking provides a framework for understanding and improving those systems to achieve that goal. Systems thinking helps identify interconnected factors that impact accessibility, enabling more holistic and effective innovations and interventions. We will hear from three panelists living with a disability and who are working from three different vantage points, to learn about how widespread and entrenched patterns, policies, practices, and/or structures produce systems with inaccessible results. The session will build understanding of the complexity of interactions, hidden biases, unintended consequences, mental models, and other factors that result in the emergence of barriers beyond the obvious or visible. Learn about the role of more inclusive, universal design frameworks that engage lived experience, in addition to data-driven, research-informed, or policy-compliant approaches