Guiding principles towards inclusive design: research notes for meaningful change

Educational media (games, animations, virtual labs) offer expansive content to various audiences and often use multiple modes to provide a meaningful learning experience. Unlike their counterparts designed solely for entertainment, educational media are designed to transform the learner and often require a combination of visual, audible, and interactive components. When integrating inclusive design practices, development teams and educators work to ensure that learners with various needs can use any given material for its entire purpose, that they feel represented, and that they can relate to the media while learning. This article presents research notes from one information designer working with a development team toward inclusive design practices. It provides a set of guiding principles to use when applying inclusive design to educational media as a way for design teams to build their own frameworks for creating more meaningful transformational media.