An IDRC Project An Inclusive Design Research Centre Project

Building standards for everyone, with everyone

Standards affect many parts of our daily lives, including the products, services, technologies, and spaces we use. When D/deaf and D/disabled people are involved in creating standards from the beginning, barriers can be identified earlier and addressed more effectively. This helps create standards that work for more people. Including different perspectives leads to standards that are more accessible, useful, and relevant for everyone.

The Guidelines for Accessibility and Inclusion in Standards Development is a practical resource to help Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) create more welcoming, equitable, and accessible processes especially for D/deaf and D/disabled people. It identifies common participation barriers and offers actions based on lived and living experience, inclusive design, and real-world examples.

Flexible and adaptable to diverse contexts, the guidelines serve as a reflective and practical tool to pinpoint improvements, spark dialogue, and guide change.

Who are the Guidelines for?

Members of Standards Developments Organizations, including:

  • Project managers and staff who coordinate technical committees;
  • Committee chairs and facilitators;
  • Membership and recruitment teams;
  • Accessibility and inclusion staff;
  • Editorial and publication teams;
  • Anyone involved in shaping how standards are developed and determining who gets to participate.

How were these Guidelines created?

These guidelines were started in 2024 and are grounded in both research and lived experience. They continue to evolve through:

  • Feedback from current and former members of technical committees and SDOs, particularly those with lived experiences of D/deafness and D/disability;
  • Insights from related projects at the Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC), including Review of the Review;
  • Application of inclusive design principles and practices developed at the IDRC;
  • Findings from a jurisdictional scan of SDO processes internationally;
  • Co-design sessions with members of D/deaf and D/disabled communities;
  • Real world use by standards development technical committees and SDOs.

How to use the Guidelines

The guidelines are structured around 5 main stages in the standards development process:

Each stage represents a key part of the standards development process and contains information related to one of 18 topics. Each topic outlines common barriers along with practical actions to improve accessibility and inclusion. Some of the suggested actions are things you can do quickly to make your standards development process more inclusive. Others will require a longer term strategy. These might take a few years to fully implement but they will make a large difference in who can contribute to your standards development work.

You can navigate the guidelines in the following ways:

Explore the Standards Development Process

Explore the standards development process and find the stage you’re interested in, then choose a topic within that stage. For each topic, you’ll find practical actions to make the standards development process more inclusive, along with the specific barriers these actions can help address.

Browse by Barriers

Visit the barriers library to see a list of barriers faced by Standards Development Organizations, organized by the 5 core stages in the standards development process and covering 18 topics. From there, you can select a specific barrier and explore the actions that can help resolve it.

Browse by Actions

Visit the actions library to see a list of actions to make the standards development process more inclusive, organized by the 5 core stages and covering 18 topics. From there, you can select a specific action to learn more about.

Find what you need

Use the search bar to find suggestions for improving your standards development process or to solve a barrier in your process. For example, try searching for ‘meeting’ or ‘hybrid’ to find suggestions for improving your hybrid meetings.

Help Us Build the Knowledge Base

Have an example of an accessible practice, process, or initiative? We’d love to hear from you. Sharing examples helps build knowledge and inspire other standards development organizations working to make standards development more inclusive.

To contribute, email us at idrc@ocadu.ca or use the contact information below in the website footer. We welcome examples, case studies, resources, and lived experiences of disability that can help make standards development more accessible and inclusive for everyone.