[community] "What does this have to do with inclusive design?" and request

[Treviranus, Jutta]

Someone asked me this lately about our work with the Platform Coop movement led by Trebor Scholz at the New School.  See: http://platform.coop

The short answer is that inclusive design is concerned with reducing disparity and we have been working on a platform for economic inclusion.

There is a longer answer though:
As part of the proposed initiative we are looking at how we can apply the platform coop model to care: childcare, eldercare, attendant care, respite care, end of life care…and educational assistants.

This is an area that is very vulnerable to exploitation by some for-profit enterprises, engaging workers that are not empowered to advocate for themselves and charging fees to persons with disabilities and their families that may be desperate and not in a position to negotiate. The differential between what is charged to individuals and families requiring care and the carers can be quite shocking. However, the working conditions, training, and benefits are often lacking.

At the same time the need for care is increasing.

We are hoping to create a platform that would produce a real sharing economy in this area. We are working with groups like CASA in the UK and the Care Alliance. See: http://www.casaltd.com

We have a number of foundations interested in supporting this effort.

My request is whether you know of groups engaging carers or groups of carers that might be interested in participating. At the moment most of the collaborating groups are in the US or Europe. It would be great to include groups from Canada as well.

thanks (currently in Ireland at UCD)
Jutta