Key Insights

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  Designers have the power to influence who is heard, included, and excluded through their work.

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  The Designers’ Critical Alphabet was created to introduce social justice and critical theory into design education where these conversations were absent.

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  The 'Good Vibes Deck' offers positive, hopeful principles such as gratitude and optimism to balance the critical language of equity work.

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  Designers can facilitate the breakdown of organizational power hierarchies to create safer, more inclusive spaces for contribution.

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  In many workplaces, equity and inclusion language is resisted; it can be more effective to frame accessibility as a business metric.

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  Academia provides a space to experiment with best practices and influence industry and public administration through critical research and writing.

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  The Positionality Wheel is a useful tool to surface identities in design teams and foster awareness of privilege and representation.

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  Inclusion should not be about fitting marginalized people into existing spaces, but about co-creating new spaces and narratives.

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  Emotional and cultural labor for marginalized designers in predominantly white or able-bodied spaces is exhausting and often invisible.

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  Self-care practices like therapy are vital for sustaining designers working in challenging social contexts and systemic inequities.

Notable Quotes