Mismatch: How inclusion shapes design

Holmes presents exclusion as a mismatch created by design decisions. Permanent, temporary and situational constraints reveal that disability is relational: barriers emerge when products or environments assume a narrow range of bodies and contexts. The book’s EDI contribution is a practical vocabulary that helps teams identify exclusion without treating people as problems to be fixed. It also explains how designing with excluded communities can produce more flexible solutions with wider benefits, while warning against reducing inclusion to a market opportunity. This matters because the mismatch framework makes accessibility relevant across mainstream design practice and supports early questioning of assumptions. For EDIDesk, the book is especially useful as an entry point connecting disability, context and innovation.