Part 4 of our Resident Engagement fall event series

How can we engage with a more diverse and representative set of Toronto’s population – and do so in a meaningful manner?

Join us on November 21 for a Lunch & Learn with OCAD’s Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC). They’ll be sharing their exciting work on building a more accessible and inclusive engagement process through their Co-Designing Inclusive Cities project, where they sought input to help create Sidewalk Toronto’s accessibility and inclusion principles.

Sepideh Shahi and Lisa Liskovoi, Inclusive Designers at the IDRC, will be sharing their process and the lessons that emerged from the co-design sessions. They’ll demonstrate how to engage and build trust with people at the margins – that is, residents who are often not included in the typical consultation process.

Participants can expect an interactive, discussion-based event, so please come with your questions!

This event is for government members only. Members can RSVP here.

Lunch will be provided! Please tell us in the RSVP form if you have any allergies or dietary restrictions.

Sepideh Shahi works as a senior inclusive designer at OCAD University’s Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC). Over the years, she has practiced design from different perspectives, as a product designer, researcher, and facilitator. Those experiences combined with her passion for social justice has given her a unique approach for problem solving; striving to design with people and not for them. At IDRC, she contributes to the development of strategies that can empower communities at the margin to share their insights, experiences, and ideas throughout the design process to build more inclusive and diverse outputs. Sepideh holds a Bachelor of Industrial Design from OCAD University in Canada and Art University of Tehran in Iran, and a Master of Design from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Lisa Liskovoi is an inclusive designer and accessibility specialist at the Inclusive Design Research Centre at OCAD University. She provides consulting, training and accessibility auditing services to organizations, governments, corporations, and non-profits with the goal of building capacity and offering people tools and practices for more inclusive design and development processes. With experience in design, accessibility evaluation, and WCAG compliance, she helps organization identify and bridge accessibility gaps in their digital products. She has taught workshops on topics such as understanding digital accessibility, technical strategies for meeting WCAG requirements, creating accessible digital documents, and techniques for evaluating accessibility.