Inclusive Design (ID) has traditionally been understood as a set of technical standards or compliance frameworks aimed at improving accessibility. While these approaches have value, they often risk reducing inclusion to a checklist, missing its deeply personal and evolving nature. This paper argues that Inclusive Design must be practiced as a mindset—one rooted in continuous unlearning, questioning, and reflection. Inclusion is not static; it is shaped by lived experience, cultural context, and conscious perception. Each individual experiences inclusion and exclusion differently, requiring adaptable and responsive design processes rather than one-size-fits-all solutions.

Drawing on lived experiences and global perspectives, this work explores various schools of Inclusive Design thought, including compliance-driven models, mindset-oriented approaches, and culturally embedded frameworks. It examines how unlearning inherited assumptions and questioning established norms serve as the first steps toward meaningful inclusion. This mindset approach challenges designers, educators, policymakers, and individuals to recognize exclusion not as a flaw to fix but as a reflection of deeper systemic assumptions.

By practicing Inclusive Design as a mindset, inclusion moves beyond technical compliance and becomes a conscious, adaptive, and relational practice. This shift invites individuals and institutions to engage in ongoing unlearning and questioning, recognizing how assumptions and inherited norms shape exclusion in both visible and subtle ways. When applied to education, policy, technology, and organizational culture, this mindset fosters environments that are not only accessible but also deeply responsive to the complexity of human experience. Rather than designing for abstract averages, Inclusive Design as a mindset empowers educators, leaders, and systems to co-create spaces where diversity is not accommodated as an afterthought, but embraced as a fundamental starting point. In doing so, we create more equitable, human-centred, and sustainable systems of learning and participation that reflect the evolving needs of society.

Keywords: Inclusive Design (ID), Mindset, Unlearning and Questioning, Equity and Diversity, Education and Inclusion, Cultural Diversity, Belonging, Adaptive Design, Human-Centered, Systemic Exclusion, Lived Experience, Reflective Practice, Conscious Design, Accessibility Beyond Compliance, Transformative Educ.