Inclusive By Design: Future Depends On Who We Include | Robert Mckinna | TEDxLoughborough University

Описание: Inclusive By Design: Why The Future Depends On Who We Include is a powerful call to rethink how we design the world around us. Drawing from personal experience with cancer and neurodiversity, this talk explores what it truly feels like to be excluded and why disability and difference affect far more of us than we realise.

With 1 in 6 people globally living with a disability and most acquiring it later in life, exclusion is not a niche issue but a future reality for many. This talk highlights how demographic change, ageing populations, chronic illness, climate challenges and emerging technologies like AI make inclusion more urgent than ever.

Through real world examples such as curb cuts, audiobooks and the electric toothbrush, discover how Inclusive Design benefits everyone, not just disabled communities. Built around three simple principles, educate, test and co create, this approach shows how we can design products, systems and technologies that include rather than exclude.

The message is clear. Inclusion is not charity. It is innovation, sustainability and the key to building a future that works for all of us. Robert McKinna is a RSA Student Design award-winning inclusive designer and founder of INCLUS. Over the years, he has used his lived-in experiences as a testicular cancer survivor with dyspraxia to create a leading inclusive design consultancy that aims to make consumer products more accessible and inclusive for disabled and social minorities within our community. He has collaborated with brands like Sky and has led successful startups such as PrepMate to empower customers with their accessible designs, allowing him to gain recognition at the Disability Power 100 List in 2024 for his contributions towards inclusive design. As a human factors specialist, he strives to champion similar practices in the medical and FMCG industries. Now, as a graduate from Loughborough University in Industrial Design and Technology, he aspires to reach out to designers, business leaders, technologists, and students to build a better future by asking who’s being left out, and how do we bring them in. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx