In this blog, Josie writes:
- Spectra have created a new network called the Geeking Out On Governance Inclusive Governance Network
- This is a group of people from different organisations who want to talk about making policies and processes inclusive and accessible.
- At the first meeting in June, people spoke about what their organisations were doing. They all had lots of questions.
- Using art and creativity can make decisions, documents and meetings more inclusive for learning disabled people.
- The network is meeting in October. You can join by emailing us.
At Spectra, we have been asking ourselves for years how we can make the governance of our organisation more inclusive for the people we serve. Who gets to lead an organisation and why? Who makes the decisions and who doesn’t? How can we change this, and how do we do this thoughtfully?
On the 23rd June 2026, we launched our new network: The Geeking Out On Governance Inclusive Governance Network. That day, around twenty people from arts and disability organisations, freelancers, artists and researchers gathered online to ask:
“What does learning disabled inclusive governance actually mean?“
Ninety minutes later, we had far more questions than answers. That felt like a success.
What if the board isn’t the centre of governance at all?
In this blog, I want to share two thoughts that came up from the group. We discussed lots more ideas and challenges, but I have been thinking about these two specific items a lot.
As we were introducing ourselves, we shared one example of our recent work in inclusive governance. Amongst the examples, most people shared ideas of how to increase learning disabled lived experience within governance that had nothing to do with increasing board representation.
For example, Sheryll from ActionSpace shared that they are planning to legally bind themselves to listen to an Artist Steering Group.
At Spectra, our learning disabled and neurodivergent Steering Group has been shaping policies through animation and collage.
Lucy from Moseley Road Baths shared that they are asking themselves how the community can steer the organisation.
Other organisations have been experimenting with non-verbal meetings, accessible contracts, creative interviews, Easy Read reports and thinking about governance as art rather than committee meetings.
What struck me was that collectively we are all experimenting with where decisions come from and how they are made. There was something quite moving about twenty organisations admitting that they are all wrestling with the same questions. And there were so many creative and exciting solutions being shared, which showed how passionate everyone is about increasing inclusion.
Art as governance
At some point Jack Ky Tan said: “When you decolonise, de-patriarchalise, and crip something, it automatically becomes learning disability inclusive.”
Normally, governance is words: Policies, minutes, reports, board papers. What people in the session were asking was: What if governance could also be images? Movement? Listening? Relationships? Art?
At Spectra, we use freeze frames a lot, which is a physical representation of a concept, a memory or a sentence. It allows NonSpeakers to interact in a room the same way a verbally communicating person does. So by simplifying or removing the words and instead finding physical or artistic responses, we are including more communication styles.
This then led me to ask myself: What if inclusion isn’t something we add to governance? What if it changes what governance becomes?
When ActionSpace creates an Artist Practice Group, when Spectra uses collage, when contracts become visual, when interviews become creative, those aren’t simply accessible versions of traditional governance. They are new governance practices.
There was a shared feeling at the end of the session: We need more space to think together, ask questions together and experiment together. Because if governance is about how decisions are made, then creativity isn’t an optional extra. It may be one of the most powerful governance tools we have.
It’s an opportunity to imagine entirely new ways of making decisions together. I have a feeling this network is only just beginning to explore what that could look like.
If you would like to join the GOOG Inclusive Governance network, please get in touch here! Our next meeting will be at the beginning of October.