Seattle Design Festival

Through a panel discussion we hope to promote open dialogue about what it means practically to consider equity in design. Considering equity is not necessarily a part of traditional training for designers, whereas other professional disciplines—like public policy, social work, public health, and education—have established approaches, frameworks, and scholarship that support practitioners’ reflection on and approaches to issues of power, privilege, and access.  

Panelists will include designers of varied disciplines and professions whose work centers around economic and social equity. The aim here is to have a discussion about the various approaches that do and could exist to support critical engagement with equity in the field of design. Particularly, with the growing interest amongst practitioners in design for good or social impact, we hope to interrogate questions like the following: “What tools do designers have to making unique contributions towards equity? How could we better support this work by providing practitioners with the language and tools to address these issues?”

Noelle Huskins, Associate Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Susan Kemp, Professor in School of Social Work at UW
Kristine Woolery, Senior Design Strategist at Microsoft
Izzie Zahorian, UX Lead at Google Ideas