Summary

Dr. Tanvir Bush joins the Web Usability Podcast to explore what genuine inclusion looks like beyond compliance and checkbox exercises. Drawing on her experience as a writer, disabled activist, and researcher, Tanvir shares why inclusion starts with understanding what makes people feel safe, welcome, and able to belong. The conversation covers meaningful co-creation, access intimacy, Crip Time, creative approaches to participation, and the importance of involving disabled people from the very beginning. Tanvir and host Lucy Collins also reflect on how rushing research and design especially in the age of AI can leave out the human insight needed to make better products and services.

Takeaways

• Inclusion is a continuing practice, not a course or checklist to complete.
• Start with self-reflection: consider where you feel safe and welcomed, and what creates that feeling.
• Move from “What can we do for you?” to “What can we do for each other?”
• Genuine co-creation means involving people early, giving them influence, allowing enough time, and paying them for their contributions.
• Creative methods can help people share experiences when conventional interviews or surveys are not a good fit.
• Making time for human participation can strengthen research and design; speed alone is not a substitute for understanding people.

Sound bites

• “What can we do for each other?”
• “Every single human life has immense value and brings something.”
• “You cannot live in emergency.”
• “People need time to be included and they need time to process.”
• “You still need to sit down with a person and speak to them.”
• “What makes me feel safe? What makes me feel welcomed?”

Find out more about Dr. Tanvir Bush here.

Summary

Lucy Collins and Ken Groom explore what allyship means in digital accessibility, especially for people without lived experience of disability. She explains why she feels cautious about using the label “ally” and why it matters to make space for disabled voices. The episode focuses on amplifying lived experience rather than speaking over the people directly affected. Lucy argues that accessibility advocacy should be a shared responsibility. She describes how inclusive user testing can help teams understand barriers through real experiences. She encourages allies to speak up when products, suppliers, or decisions are inaccessible.

Takeaways

Make room for disabled people to share their own experience's

Use your platform to amplify those voices, not replace them.

Treat accessibility as a shared responsibility.

Include people with a range of access needs in user testing.

Help decision-makers understand barriers through direct user experiences.

Challenge inaccessible tools and processes when you encounter them.

Sound bites

“Good allyship means lifting up disabled voices rather than taking space from them”

“Allyship is not passive support, but active advocacy”

“Disability inclusion becomes a shared responsibility”

“Inclusive user testing lets people experience accessibility barriers directly”

“Allyship means both amplifying others and challenging exclusion”

“Speak up when products or services leave people out”

Summary

Lucy Collins speaks with inclusive design advocate Matt Roberts about the relationship between accessibility, disability, and inclusive design. Matt shares how arthritis, colourblindness, and hearing loss have shaped his personal and professional perspective. The conversation explores why access needs can be permanent, temporary, situational, or invisible. Lucy and Matt discuss moving beyond diagnosis labels and designing around real human circumstances and outcomes.

Takeaways

Ask what someone is trying to do and what is stopping them, rather than focusing only on diagnosis.

Design for shared states such as fatigue, low energy, limited attention, or reduced dexterity.

Consider a range of inputs and outputs, including keyboard, touch, voice, screen readers, captions, and adjustable text.

Treat accessibility as a continuous learning process, not a one-time checklist.

Observe how people interact with the world and use those observations to create more inclusive experiences.

Sound bites

“Accessibility is about designing so that more people in more circumstances can achieve what they came to do.”

“I can’t switch on and off being colourblind. I can’t switch off having good and bad arthritis days. It’s just who I am.”

“It’s everybody. It’s everybody in some sort of way and it will impact you differently at different times.”

“Accessibility is good for all, but accessibility is essential for people with disabilities.”

“Don’t think that you’re done. Don’t think you’ve completed it.”

Find out more about Matt here...

LinkedIn: mattroberts.me / Linkedin