Defining Inclusive Innovation

This chapter discusses innovation as it relates to products developed by or for people with disabilities. It describes how a bootstrapping approach helps design teams create success from perceived failures, often in the form of technology game changers. The chapter employs themes from modern art, popular music, television entertainment, and philanthropy to envision a work process by which business and societal gaps can be explored. The chapter identifies five trends in assistive technology that form a construct for defining innovation. Using an iPhone app for autistic children as a case study, the chapter concludes with thoughts and recommendations on how to best to deliver a product to market using a minimum viable product approach, with practical examples relevant to the disability market. The chapter concludes with a case study on how behavior-based technological innovation can improve nutrition literacy in urban populations.