"Accessible and inclusive design means feeling recognized, feeling welcomed, feeling included." (Amy, Co-Creator at Sony's Inclusive Design Workshop)
Sony Group is promoting inclusive design across the company, an approach that obtains new insights into designs for all, by ensuring that the needs of a wide range of users are understood and included.
To raise awareness of inclusive design, we have been holding regular inclusive design workshops for Sony Group employees in Japan. To date, over 2,000 employees*1, of all positions and backgrounds, have participated in this workshop.
A unique feature of this workshop is that employees participate in activities with people with disabilities. These include navigating around a city and the built environment, conducting observations and dialogues with people with disabilities to understand the challenges and find solutions. By working together with people with disabilities, participants can experience how key ideas can be generated in a variety of situations, from products and services in each business area to the work environment.
Additionally, Sony Group is running the "Sony Inclusive Design Workshop" program, which aims to expand our workshops beyond the boundaries of its business operations globally. This workshop program was developed in collaboration with Open Style Lab, a non-profit organization that promotes disability inclusion in style and design, with the input of people with disabilities. It is not just about mutual understanding, we go further by co-creating with people with disabilities, the "co-creators", to consider what each of us can do to improve our products, services, and entertainment.
The workshop was held in London in September 2024. Mixed teams of employees from a variety of Sony's business areas, such as Music, Pictures, and Entertainment Technology & Services, partnered with co-creators and worked together on various aspects of how to make accessible and inclusive entertainment as well as their expectations for Sony Group.
The co-creators who came together are people with visual or physical disabilities who love music, movies, and technology.
Below is an interview video in which co-creators and employees who participated in the workshop talk about their thoughts on inclusive design.
Sony Group will continue to roll out our Inclusive Design Workshops across the group globally.
Through inclusive design, which involves planning, designing, and developing together with people with disabilities, we aim to increase accessibility in all aspects of our products, services, entertainment, work environment and more. Thereby contributing to an inclusive society where everyone can share Kando (emotion).
