Leading a world beyond ‘inclusion’

Last week, when I had the incredible privilege of visiting San Francisco at the world-leading Remarkable Tech Summit, I had the wonderful feeling that I was in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. How often in life do we have the sense that we are precisely where we should be - and simply could not imagine being anywhere else?

Minnie Baragwanath and Remarkable's founder, Peter Horsley.

There were several reasons for this feeling. Firstly, I was with the most incredible people from all around the world. All of us gathering together in one space to explore and share ideas about the current and future state of technology that can support a more equitable future for people with disability or access needs.  Secondly, we were so beautifully and graciously hosted by the teams from Remarkable Australia and USA! These gorgeous teams did everything in their power to ensure we each had the smoothest experience possible in terms of accessibility, but also ensured we all had access to world-leading ideas, tech innovations, practitioners, and entrepreneurs!

Thirdly, we were in San Francisco, the birthplace of the disability civil rights movement and of the independent living movement that emerged out of world renowned, Berkley University in the 1960’s.  The now famous phrase that vehemently calls for disability inclusion, ‘Nothing about us without us’ started its life in this fascinating city and within the disability rights movement!  Finally, I had the luxury of time and space to reflect deeply and to pay attention to some growing discomfort I have been feeling for some time. Being at this wonderful Summit helped me to really crystallize this gnawing, deeply unsettling, feeling.

An opportunity for transformative leadership

Minnie B speaking at the Remarkable Tech Summit.

Across the two days, various presenters spoke eloquently about inclusion, inclusive design, and the importance of the access community being included into all aspects of life.  We even heard from an amazing speaker, Eric Ingram, working to ensure the International Space Program is inclusive! Of course, there is no doubt access should be built into all aspects of life and simply be a given, not even in question. But I wondered, is this ALL we should be striving for in 2022?

Well, I do believe with all my heart and soul that there is another way, alongside inclusion, that we now need to be looking at and thinking about if we are to advance accessibility in the 21st century. I think it is quite possible that our total fixation with inclusion is preventing us from seeing an alternative and extremely powerful approach for advancing access, one that is vitally needed in today’s world. In other words, I believe we are missing a vital opportunity for transformative leadership.

At the Summit, I realised that the problem for me, is connected to the concept of inclusion. Because in my experience, inclusion is all about being invited to the table by those already at the table. This often means that the power still sits with those at the table, to decide not only if, but when, they wish to invite us, or not. And once at the table, if we dare to challenge too far or rise to high, we may well be asked to leave. My point is this. What if the access leaders and innovators did the inviting? What if we, the access community want to create our own table? What if we want to reimagine and redesign tables altogether?  In other words, what is the place beyond inclusion? I personally am deeply tired of asking permission to be included! I will not do it anymore. 

A Possibility world view

This beautiful place beyond inclusion, is what I call the Possibility world view and it is what I and others have been working on for several years now in Aotearoa (New Zealand).

What I am now committed too and am deeply curious to explore, is what could this Possibility world view and leadership approach reveal and make possible not just in Aotearoa, but around the world? This mindset or perspective goes beyond the limiting paradigms of a Disability world view and even an Accessibility world view. This world view of Possibility is led by access citizens! It is a very contemporary world view and way of thinking, leading, innovating and designing that has access at its heart, not as something that needs to be added later! Possibility is also future focused and fit for navigating the current VUCA world we all live in, one that is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous.

The critical key to this approach to design and leadership is the concept of ‘with’. In this world view we, the access community, do the inviting in! We invite in the people, the talent the resources and the things we believe are needed to shape a better brighter future for ourselves and others. We invite you to be ‘with us’. It is 2022, and I now think it is time access leaders and innovators stopped asking to be included - and graciously, confidently, unapologetically lead the way instead.

Nothing without us

Minnie B meeting the wonderful Jonathan Kaufman at the Summit.

My gorgeous new friend from the Summit, Jonathan Kaufman in his fabulous recent article in Forbes magazine, boldly refreshed the rallying cry of inclusion ‘Nothing about us without us’, into simply ‘Nothing without us’ and while I absolutely love what he wrote, I wonder…does even this go far enough? Perhaps growing up outside of America and in a rebellious island nation at the bottom (or is that top?) of the world, means we have greater freedom to question and respectfully challenge the appropriateness today of the sacred civil rights slogans from the 1960’s to determine our futures?

Perhaps it is also the influence of growing up in Aotearoa with the powerful presence of te-ao Māori (the Maori world view) and in particular the concept of ‘tino rangatiratanga’ (self-determination), that reveals ‘with’ to me as the only approach that will truly ensure an accessible future? Or perhaps it is facing the harsh reality after 30 years of accessibility social change work, that I can now see inaccessibility is so inextricably interwoven into the fabric of our societies that only a completely courageous and fresh redesign will ever get us close to what we want? After all, we are now all living in 2022, not 1960, and the world is very different!

Perhaps after years of striving and asking to be included, both our focus and our language needs to change? Perhaps we need to move from ‘Nothing about us without us’, to simply, confidently, ‘with us’?

Access leaders and innovators

In my first blog, ‘Discovering the power of ‘with’ , I shared with you how I choose to define the concept of ‘with’. In that blog I shared how being truly ‘with’ an access leader or innovator may at times be similar to the role performed by a midwife in childbirth. Support may very well be needed, and the focus must be on mother and child, not the other way around. If access leaders and citizens are to birth an accessible future, the right kind of support and investment is needed - and those who have traditionally held on to the power may now need to go ‘without’! Because if the powerful continue to hold on to (or as I call it ‘withhold’) power, resource and yes, financial investment… a truly accessible future will possibly never emerge!

Last year in 2021, the Global Centre of Possibility at Auckland University of Technology, hosted the first ever Possibility Leadership program. This innovative pilot program set about investing time, money and expertise into 10 access innovators and entrepreneurs. Each of these amazing leaders adopted this Possibility world view and approach to the design and execution of their ideas.  They were not seeking inclusion. They were unapologetically shaping an alternative future through accessible design. To me, these innovators are examples of Possibility in action. The question is, how do we now go about growing this community of Possibility leaders and practitioners? How do we show up ‘with’ them? I believe this is now the role for Aotearoa, to hot house this approach to leadership and design, not just for Aotearoa, but for the world!  

This is the opportunity I ponder as I return from San Francisco.

As I stated unequivocally at the Remarkable Tech Summit, while it is fabulous to see the growing investment in assistive technology, the most incredible ‘technology’ that I know of are human beings. We must invest at least as much into the growth and leadership of access leaders and innovators as we are into emerging tech! All too often we look for leadership in all the wrong places. All too often we still consciously or unconsciously look to the traditional superpowers to lead the way in our global world. However, isn’t it time we recognised the leadership of Possibility right here in Aotearoa?

I invite you to join me at our emerging table of ‘with’ and I ask: what are you willing to invest to support the birth of this new future? What might be possible ‘with us’ both locally and globally?

Nga mihi

Minnie Baragwanath

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#Possibility
#Accessibility
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To find out more about Minnie and her work visit www.minnieb.co.nz. To learn more about the Global Centre of Possibility visit www.gcop.co.nz. To keep receiving Minnie’s blogs sign up below…