Inclusive design engages people with different lived experiences throughout the design process to create workplaces where everyone can do their best work.
Great communities are inclusive by design
Inclusive design considers the full spectrum of human diversity, including people’s conditions, experiences, abilities, language, culture, gender and age. Considering the full range of people’s needs and encouraging them to express their perspectives creates a win-win experience.
Inclusive Design Pillars
Recognize Exclusion
Explore the perspectives, barriers and needs of traditionally excluded communities through collaboration and partnership.
Include, Listen + Evolve
Integrate a diverse group of people into the design process, and leverage their feedback to inform and impact the outcome.
Create Equitable Experiences
Strive for equality and equitable experiences. Design for the individual, while exploring how solutions can scale to address unmet needs.
Design to Empower + Accommodate
Empower personal autonomy, as well as individual choice and control. Build responsive spaces that provide comfort and ease.
Customer Story: Special Olympics Inclusion Center Welcomes Everyone
Special Olympics Michigan’s Unified Sports and Inclusion Center is a first-of-its kind facility with spaces designed in close collaboration with the people it’s intended to serve. We co-created spaces with the people who use the center — not just for them.
Thought Starters
This shielded work space offers more privacy in the open for those who need a space to focus or take a call, providing control over the work experience while limiting exposure and reducing distractions.
Learning Spaces offer space for larger teams or groups to gather together. These spaces could also be reserved for a block of time to gather for a workshop or to watch a town hall meeting on the screen.
Smaller meeting rooms provide options for teams to gather, or for those who benefit from additional hearing, language and visual support such as closed captioning, sign language interpreters and language translation.
In this space, color and light levels can be controlled for anyone who needs to step away and access more control over the situation around them. The tactile lounge acts like a big hug, and a side table stores blankets with a nearby tray for fidget spinners.
Inclusive Design Research + Insights
Open image tooltip Inclusive Design in Action
The new home of the Steelcase Global Talent team is a welcoming and inclusive environment designed with the people who use the space.
Open image tooltip Making Space for Well Beings
Discover the new spaces created by Steelcase designers that acknowledge our shared humanity and allow us to bring our whole selves to work.
Open image tooltip Embracing How Different Our Brains Are with Elena Sabinson (S4:E6)
The workplace can do a much better job than it does today supporting diverse needs. Elena Sabinson is a neurodivergent researcher diagnosed later in life with autism and ADHD. Elena’s personal experience and research on neurodiversity along with expertise in architecture and design gives us ideas for how the workplace can do more to support all of our different brains. (Read transcript) (Find in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen)
Open image tooltip Spaces for All
In designing inclusive spaces, the issue of what might support an equitable experience for one group, may create challenges for another. There is no single solution, but there is power in understanding competing priorities.
Open image tooltip The New Inclusive Campus with Moira Fischbacher-Smith (S3:E7)
The University of Glasgow is the fourth oldest university in the English-speaking world. Despite being more than 500 years old, it is leading the way in higher education. We asked Moira Fischbacher-Smith, vice principal of Learning and Teaching, about their strategy to create more inclusive learning environments and how it’s making an impact. (Read transcript) (Find in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen)
Open image tooltip Audacious Inclusion with Caroline Casey (S3:E1)
The founder of The Valuable 500, Caroline Casey, also happens to be legally blind. Learn how she started an inclusion revolution in the workplace, why she says hiding her true self was so limiting and her insights into how to create more inclusive workplaces even when everyone’s needs are so different. (Read transcript) (Find in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen)
Open image tooltip Uncovering Barriers
Creating inclusive spaces requires celebrating what is working well, while also examining who feels left out.
Open image tooltip Ideas for Designing Inclusive Workplaces
Leaders in equity and inclusion share how to design better spaces that foster equitable and inclusive work experiences.
Open image tooltip Inclusive Design in Practice
Steelcase + our partners in inclusive places, cultures and digital technologies share best practices for welcoming workplaces.
Open image tooltip Designing With, Not For
Key learnings point to equity, not equality, as a goal for inclusive workplaces.
Open image tooltip Place of Pride
Special Olympics Michigan partnered with Steelcase to create spaces designed for a first-of-its-kind inclusion center.
Open image tooltipDiscover Community-Based Design
Inclusive design brings together a wide range of people with varied lived experiences to inform Community-Based Design, creating workplaces where everyone can thrive.
Open image tooltipSteelcase’s Valuable 500 Commitment
Through our partnership with the Valuable 500, we commit to shining a spotlight on designing for disability and inclusion in Steelcase workplaces and supporting our customers in their inclusive design efforts. Read more about our commitment and the Valuable 500’s work to end disability exclusion.