Activity Report 2023–2025 | Embassy of Inclusive Society
Inclusion as Design Practice
Between 2023 and 2025, the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS), the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) and Dutch Design Foundation (DDF) collaborated on issues relating to inclusion, accessibility and design. Through the multi-year Embassy of Inclusive Society programme, designers, people with lived experience, policymakers, cultural institutions and societal partners came together to explore how a more inclusive society can be shaped.
Through exhibitions, research through design, conferences, workshops and public programmes, including during Dutch Design Week, the programme generated new perspectives, working methods and collaborations. Its focus extended beyond raising awareness of inclusion to exploring how design can contribute to societal and institutional change.
This activity report provides an overview of the programme’s key activities, collaborations and outcomes between 2023 and 2025. It also illustrates how the programme evolved over three years: from spatial and public-facing experiments to a broader design and research practice that increasingly addressed systemic and policy-related challenges. Throughout the programme, inclusion was approached not as a separate theme or fixed end goal, but as a continuous process of learning, unlearning and developing together.