International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD) offers an important moment to reflect, not just on the progress made but on the lessons learned along the way. At Remarkable, our mission is all about creating a world where innovation and inclusion are synonymous. We’re proud to work alongside Disability Tech founders, leaders and advocates who challenge the status quo and reimagine what’s possible.
Building a truly inclusive future isn’t easy, and we don’t always get it right. This year, the IDPwD theme, "Amplifying the leadership of persons with disabilities for an inclusive and sustainable future", feels particularly meaningful. It reminds us to take stock of how our values, actions, and leadership align with the broader goal of inclusion.
In this blog, we want to take this moment to reflect on our journey: the successes we celebrate, the challenges that push us to do better, and the ways we’re striving to put people with disabilities at the centre in everything we do. We’ve learned that real progress comes from listening, growing, and being open to change and we’re excited to share how we’re putting those lessons into action.
Putting Values Into Practice: How We Build Remarkable Experiences
One way we live our values is by embedding accessibility and inclusion into all aspects of our work. Over the past year, this has shaped the in-person and online events we’ve hosted such as our recent event with LaunchVic, Accelerator Demo Days, the Community Meetup at Canva, and the Launcher Showcase. Alongside these events, we have made accessibility the focus of how we deliver our programming. These moments have been opportunities to bring our principles to life and create spaces where everyone feels valued and supported.
Here are some of the ways we’ve worked to make our events inclusive, with the help of Disability Tech:
- Sharing Clear Accessibility Information: Using platforms like Humanitix, we provided detailed accessibility information, including ramp access, location of accessible bathrooms, and parking information such as this City of Melbourne accessible parking map, in an effort to make it as easy as possible for people. We also made sure attendees knew who to contact with accessibility questions, so they felt supported from the start.
- Creating Sensory and Quiet Spaces: Quiet spaces were available for attendees needing a break from noise or crowds, making events more welcoming for everyone, especially those with sensory sensitivities.
- Supporting Hidden Disabilities: By raising awareness of the Sunflower lanyard, we helped ensure that attendees with hidden disabilities felt acknowledged and supported.
- Live Sign Language Interpretation and Captioning: For both in-person and virtual events, wherever possible we provided live Sign Language Interpretation and live captioning. We worked with innovative startups like GoVoBo for live captioning at the Tech Summit and Salesforce have live captioning built into their event space that we used for the Global Demo Day.
- Representation in Keynote Speaking Roles: Having people with disabilities in prominent roles, such as keynote speakers or panel members, is critical to ensure diverse voices and perspectives are truly centered at our Remarkable events.
- Encouraging Thoughtful Communication: We shared guidelines with presenters and attendees to support diverse communication styles with ideas such as encouraging brief pauses during discussions to allow sign language interpreters to keep pace. At our community meetup, we also introduced these conversation starter cards to make networking more accessible and inclusive, helping attendees connect more comfortably and meaningfully.
Amplifying Leadership: Stories from Disability Tech Innovators and Advocates
Living our values also means shining a light on the incredible contributions of people with disabilities who are driving innovation and challenging norms. Through the Remarkable Insights Podcast, we’ve had the privilege of amplifying the work of global leaders working across fields like space exploration, artificial intelligence, public transport, and live music.
To mark this year’s IDPwD, we shared a podcast episode featuring Dr. Scott Avery, Professor of Indigenous Disability Health and Wellbeing at the University of Technology Sydney. In this episode, Dr. Scott (as he’s well known) reflects on the importance of IDPwD and how embracing culture as inclusion can create a more inclusive world.
Don’t miss this conversation with Dr Scott and be sure to catch up on other episodes of Remarkable Insights on our podcast page. You can access the full podcast episode, with transcript, and video highlights via our Remarkable Insights page or hit play below!
Learning and Evolving: Lessons from Our Journey
Accessibility and inclusion is a journey, not a destination. Along the way, we’ve learnt that this commitment requires intention, action, and continual learning. While we’re proud of the positive experiences we’ve created, we would also like to acknowledge the many valuable lessons that have helped us improve:
- Human-Checking Automated Captions: While automated captions can be helpful, they’re not always accurate. We’ve learnt the importance of reviewing captions manually to avoid misunderstandings and ensure all communication is clear and truly inclusive.
- Ensuring Accessible Content Options: Sharing content in accessible ways has been an area of continuous learning for us. Whether it’s event recordings or podcast episodes, we now prioritise offering multiple formats, such as videos with audio description and transcripts, to make the content available to as many people as possible.
We’re also focusing on improving the accessibility of our online forms and program materials. By moving these resources to our website, we aim to make them more user-friendly to screen readers and accessible to our community. - Applying Inclusive Design in Digital Systems: When developing the ‘Remarkable Hub’, our new platform designed to onboard program participants and community members, accessibility was a central priority. Guided by feedback and a commitment to inclusivity, our Operations team evaluated different tools and learnt that Glide was the best choice for its highly screen reader-friendly features.
- Embedding Lived Experience: Our philosophy is built on designing with, not for. We believe early involvement of people with lived experience is essential, especially when building Disability Tech startups. This insight led to the introduction of our User Feedback Community, a space for startups to learn directly from individuals with disabilities.
- Respecting Language Preferences: Language is deeply personal. We’ve learned not to assume whether someone prefers person-first, identity-first or another style of language. Instead, we prioritise asking and listening, ensuring we honour each person's preference.
A Call to Action for an Inclusive Tomorrow
This year’s IDPwD theme reminds us that accessibility and inclusion shouldn’t just be a focus on December 3rd. As Matt Pierri, founder of Sociability, shared the importance of making not just one day but how we create, connect, and innovate everyday:
“...Days like this really formalise and put [disability rights] on the map and highlight that this is a topic we should be talking about but I guess the challenge is to make sure that we're talking about it for more than just one day a year.”
Check out Matt's full response below, where he shares what International Day of People with Disability means to him.
In the spirit of Matt’s words, this blog is just one of many ways we’re raising the profile of this important day and extending its impact beyond a single date. Here are some ways you can join us in celebrating and fostering inclusion year-round:
- Stream the Remarkable Insights Podcast, featuring leaders with lived experience of disability who are driving change in tech, business, and social norms.
- Discover Our Remarkable Startups working to build a more inclusive and accessible future.
- Explore Fiona Murphy’s story, a Jessica King Fellowship alumni, who shares her journey of disability and leadership.
- Tune In to Dr Scott Avery delivering this year’s Disability Leadership Institute Oration at 5pm on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio National.
- Support the IDPwD Ambassadors, who share their unique experiences and perspectives, driving us toward a more inclusive and sustainable future.
- Continue Learning about how the neurodivergent experience and entrepreneurship intersect.
Together, we can amplify contributions, foster innovation, and create a world where accessibility and inclusion are simply the norm.
