Speaker

Ambika Samarthya-Howard

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Ambika Samarthya-Howard is a video producer, writer, and communications specialist. Her work focuses on social issues, specifically gender, public health, and child rights. She received her MFA in Film at Columbia University, producing her thesis film in Bollywood as a Fulbright scholar. She currently lives in New York, and was formerly the co-chair of the South Asian Women's Creative Collective. She is the Head of Communications at Praekelt.org where she writes and produces work on ICT4D as well as co-leading an inclusivity group.
Portland, OR November 4, 2017
Inclusivity 360: Including Diverse Voices Through the Project Lifecycle
Discussion of marginalized and vulnerable communities

How do a group of developers in Cape Town work with digital strategists in New York to design a product to be used by a girl living in a town 300 km outside of Mumbai? I work for Praekelt.org, an organisation that creates mobile technology for marginalized users in low and middle income countries, and we ask ourselves these questions every day. Inclusivity is a priority for us in creating tools our users will find beneficial, but also in negotiating our dispersed global working community, with a wide range of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.

This talk will investigate multiple touch points for organisations to include diverse voices in their process: from co-design to partnering with local governments to hearing users in storytelling. We will also talk about the importance and challenges of building inclusivity in the workplace as integral to these approaches.