Honorary Citation by Professor Máire Leane for Sinéad Burke
A uachtarán na hollscoile, a shainsailéar, a dhaoine uaisle agus a chairde go léir, is an-onóir dom cúpla focal a rá faoi Sinéad de Buarca ar an ócáid suntasach seo.
President of UCC, chancellor of the National University of Ireland, graduates, visitors and friends, it is an honour to provide the citation for Sinéad Burke for her honorary degree conferring today.
Who is Sinéad Burke
Sinéad Burke is an Internationally recognised, multi award winning and hugely impactful change maker who is driving industry and cultural transformation in the field of inclusive design, be that in the built environment, in workplace cultures or in product and service development. Her passion for inclusive design is anchored in her own experience as a woman with the genetic condition of Acondraplasia, the most common form of Dwarfism. Standing at 3 foot 5 inches or 105 cms, Sinéad continuously experiences exclusionary and disabling design, through which her independence, her choices, her rights, her safety and her dignity, are frequently compromised in everyday activities, like ordering and collecting a drink in a café, trying to reach the lock on the door of a public toilet or very importantly for her, given her lifelong interest in fashion, finding beautiful and age appropriate clothes and shoes to wear. These experiences have fuelled her ambition to make the world more accessible for all disabled and otherwise marginalised people and she has emerged as a global leader, advocating for decision making and design processes which are informed by the lived experiences of people with disabilities, can drive system change and deliver on accessibility solutions.
What Sinéad had achieved
A blog series decrying the lack of representation and meaningful inclusion in fashion, provided the jumping off point for Sinéad’s highly influential engagement with the fashion industry. In 2016 she spoke at a “Designing for All’ Showcase event at The White House, in 2017 she delivered a TED Talk 'Why Design Should Include Everyone' which has over 1.68m views and presented on ‘Designing for Disability’ at the Business of Fashion VOICES, an annual gathering where leaders and innovators in the fashion industry envision the future of fashion. Her impact on the industry was recognised in 2018 with a prestigious Green Carpet Fashion Award for 'leading a huge transformation in the fashion system and changing the Fashion Conversation for Good'. In the same year she was included in the Business of Fashion’s 500 list and on Vogue’s list of ‘ The women shaping Britain and Ireland’ and she became a Contributing Editor of British Vogue. The following year Sinéad, featured on the cover of the 'Forces for Change' issue of British Vogue and in 2023 she guest edited the May issue of British Vogue, with a theme of ‘Reframing Fashion’ which was produced by a team of people with disabilities and featured disabled people throughout the magazine, including on the cover. Her commitment to ensuring that “Change is a Movement not a Moment’ has seen Sinéad work with partners to create stronger pipelines for disabled creatives including fully funded scholarships for disabled designers to train at Parsons School of Design in New York, and for disabled writers in Film & TV with the National Talent Academy in Ireland.
Sinéad’s sphere of influence as a change maker in inclusive design has moved far beyond her initial contribution to the fashion industry. In 2020, Sinéad founded and is CEO of Tilting the Lens, a global accessibility company providing strategic consultancy and bespoke accessibility solutions to clients on 4 continents and across a range of sectors including business, media, the public sector, the arts, academia, and non-profit sectors. Clients include Chanel, Gucci, ITV, Mattel, Microsoft, NASA, Pinterest, the Ford Foundation, the Victoria & Albert Museum and closer to home, the Irish Public Appointments Service and AIB. Tilting the Lens is B Corporation Certified, has a majority-disabled team whose work ranges from creating more accessible public spaces (like companies, shops, film sets, hotels and nightclubs, galleries, and playgrounds), to advising on the changes in recruitment, workflows, and workplace culture which will set disabled employees up for success. The work of Tilting the Lens is informed by human-centred design principles and in particular, a commitment to understanding user needs and expectations, to meaningfully engaging with the disabled community, and to co-designing accessibility solutions which leave no one behind. Significantly, Sinéad and her team view the work of accessibility as a dynamic and iterative process and not a one size fits all, moment in time solution.
In addition to running Tilting the Lens Sinéad makes extensive contributions to global fora. She delivered a Keynote address on 'Designing for Everyone' at the Davos World Economic Forum and was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. At the United Nations Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, she spoke about “Infrastructure for a resilient, inclusive and sustainable future” and shared insights on the design of disability-inclusive strategies in climate emergencies. At national level she affects change and raises awareness through her membership of the Irish Council of State and the Irish Future of Media Commission and through her podcast ‘As Me with Sinéad Burke’ for Lemonada Media, and her award-winning children’s book ‘Break the Mould’. Break the Mould invites children to think about the power of being different, to use their voices to be allies to others, to break the mould and to find their place in the world. And this is what Sinéad herself continues to do as a mission-driven advocate, promoting the pursuit of inclusion in a meaningful way, characterised by co-design with people with disabilities and committed to accessibility solutions which promote dignity, equity, agency, innovation, and pride. Being a disruptor, a pathfinder, an advocate, an activist and indeed a fashionista, is demanding. I salute Sinéad for the huge generosity of spirit which fuels her work, work done with a wry sense of humour and a great deal of style and work which is breaking the mould and indeed redesigning it for the benefit of all.