Design justice

A framework that centers the perspectives and leadership of people most affected by design outcomes, challenging traditional design processes that often reinforce existing power structures. Coined and developed by Sasha Costanza-Chock, design justice draws on social movement traditions to argue that design should be led by communities rather than imposed upon them. In accessibility contexts, design justice calls for disabled people to be positioned not as users or testers but as expert designers and knowledge producers whose lived experience constitutes rigorous, situated knowledge. This challenges the conventional model where non-disabled researchers and designers build for a generalized conception of disability. Design justice intersects with crip technoscience and disability justice in advocating for accessibility research that is reflexive, justice-oriented, and accountable to the communities it serves.