DEI Commitment

Purpose

At CoDesign Collaborative, our mission is to inspire social change through the transformative power of design. This includes taking an active stance against rhetoric and practices that seek to disenfranchise and discriminate against anyone based on their group identities. We stand in solidarity with efforts to center the perspectives of historically marginalized groups, including BIPOC, queer, and/or disabled people. Recognizing that design is a White, male-dominated field, we strive to support and lead efforts to diversify and foster equity in the field overall. This work includes taking an introspective look at our own organization, educating ourselves in racial and disability justice, and taking steps to address inequities. We acknowledge this work is both evolving and never-ending, and the purpose of this statement is to demonstrate our commitment to this journey as well as emphasize the values and codes of conduct that we expect from our members, supporters, and collaborators.

Guiding Principles

• We are participatory and committed to community-centered approaches.
• We believe in the power of design to improve the world around us.
• We value curiosity, collaboration, and co-creation.
• We champion inclusive design.
• We strive for our internal practices, educational programs, and creative projects to reflect the equitable and socially responsible world that we want to see.

On the Design Process and other Definitions

Design Process

We are a community of designers and creative professionals motivated by using the design process for social good. We acknowledge that traditional design practices have at times, been used to uphold tenets of white supremacy by aligning with and reinforcing systems of power and privilege to the detriment of women, BIPOC, queer, and disabled communities. This is evident across areas of impact, including, but not limited to, Eurocentric design curriculum; public spaces that aren’t accessible and/or safe for women, queer, and/or disabled visitors; and algorithmic bias in technology that has shown higher rates of facial recognition errors for Black and/or gender nonconforming individuals. Our focus is on highlighting practices that involve community members in meaningful ways throughout the design process, so that their voices and expertise guide and inform the outcomes.

Diversity

Diversity to CoDesign Collaborative means the true intersections of identities and experiences, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, economic status, geographic location, disability, spoken languages, and many more.

Equity

Equity is giving everyone the support they need to have the same level of access to power and resources. This differs from equality which provides everyone with the same support regardless of their access to power and resources–meaning that oftentimes in an equitable policy, some group identities are more actively advocated for to correct the inequitable, systemic issue.

Inclusion

Inclusion is the active practice or policy of providing equal or expanded access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized. Most traditionally, inclusion speaks to those who have physical or mental disabilities, but it should also extend to any people who are not part of the dominant group identity.

Accessibility and Disability Justice

Disability justice is an intersectional framework that strives to center all disabled perspectives while examining the ways in which ableism has supported other systems of oppression, including race and gender. In the field of design, “accessibility” is often connected to ADA guidelines, which, while necessary, improve access to a small number of people.

Identity-First & Person-First Language

Identify-first language (e.g. “disabled person”) acknowledges disability as inherent in a person’s identity and connects that identity to a shared community, culture, and history. Person-first language (“person with a disability”) acknowledges the human being first. We have chosen to use identify-first language in our materials, while also always defaulting to how our disabled contributors choose to self-identify.

Group Identities

Identifiers which are based on the physical, social, and mental characteristics of individuals; are sometimes obvious and visible, sometimes not obvious and not visible, often self-claimed, and frequently ascribed by others.

Commitment to Action

We strive to live by these principles through a holistic approach to our programming, internal processes, membership structure, and professional development.

This includes:

• Centering perspectives and participation of communities that have been historically marginalized throughout our content, programs, and publications.
• Working to diversify the field by providing access and opportunities to the next generation of creative problem solvers through free student memberships and educational resources;
• Assessing demographic information of Board, Staff, and our Advisory Council and working to improve diverse representation of all forms;
• Evaluating and implementing equitable hiring practices, including structured interviews and salary transparency;
• Hosting a permanent DEI/Inclusive Design Committee that assesses short and long-term goals for the organization in this area.

Once more, we acknowledge that we are an evolving organization on a never-ending journey to dismantle white supremacy and design for a better world. We are aware that there is much room for improvement. These principles demonstrate the values and goals that guide our work, and by stating them publicly, we ask that our broader community of members, supporters, and collaborators, help us contribute to a shared vision of an equitable and inclusive future.