The Collective Shift

The beginning of a new year often brings renewed commitment—and in the equity space, 2026 arrives at a critical juncture. Across the globe, we are witnessing simultaneous pushback against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and a deepening recognition that systemic inequity cannot be addressed through shallow interventions. The question facing leaders, practitioners, and policymakers is not whether to continue this work, but how to do it with integrity, impact, and courage.

Trend 1: From DEI Language to Systems Language

In parts of the world—particularly in the United States—there has been a marked retreat from explicit DEI language. Some organizations are rebranding their efforts as "belonging," "workplace culture," or "people strategy." While this shift is often framed as strategic adaptation, it reveals a deeper tension: the discomfort with naming inequity directly.

Yet even as the language changes, the underlying issues persist. Disability exclusion, migration barriers, pay inequities, and access gaps remain embedded in policies, practices, and institutional design. What this moment demands is not softer language, but bolder systems thinking—a willingness to interrogate the structures that create and sustain exclusion, regardless of what we call the work.

Equity is a responsibility, not a checkbox. And systems reflect values—values that can, and must, be redesigned.

Trend 2: Disability Inclusion as a Design Imperative

One of the most promising shifts in the global equity landscape is the growing recognition that accessibility is not an accommodation—it is a design imperative. From digital platforms to physical spaces to employment practices, organizations are beginning to understand that designing for disability inclusion strengthens systems for everyone.

Yet progress remains uneven. In many contexts, persons with disabilities continue to navigate barriers that were never necessary—barriers rooted in assumptions about what "normal" participation looks like. The challenge for 2026 is to move from reactive compliance to proactive, participatory design, ensuring that those with lived experience of disability are not consulted as an afterthought, but are central to decision-making from the start.

Inclusion must be designed, not assumed.

Trend 3: Migration, Refugees, and the Right to Belong

Globally, forced displacement continues to rise. Refugees and migrants are building lives in new contexts, often while navigating legal precarity, language barriers, and systemic exclusion from employment, education, and civic participation. Yet too often, migration is treated as a crisis to be managed rather than an opportunity to reimagine belonging.

In 2026, organizations have a choice: to view newcomers as vulnerable populations requiring charity, or as community members with skills, experience, and agency who are too often locked out of opportunity by design. This shift requires rethinking credentialing systems, language access, hiring practices, and integration models—moving from assimilation to genuine inclusion.

The question is not whether displaced communities can contribute, but whether systems will allow them to.

What Organizations Should Be Rethinking

As we move through 2026, organizations committed to meaningful change must ask themselves harder questions:

• Are we designing for equity, or retrofitting for compliance? True inclusion is embedded from the beginning—not added as an afterthought.
• Who is at the table when decisions are made? If the people most affected by a policy or practice are not shaping it, equity remains theoretical.
• Are we measuring representation, or measuring access and power? Diversity without equity is performance. Impact requires redistribution.
• Are we willing to name and address the systems that create exclusion? Changing culture requires changing structures—policies, budgets, decision-making processes, and accountability mechanisms.

A Call to Collective Responsibility

The work of equity is not easy, and it is not fast. It requires us to sit with discomfort, to interrogate our own assumptions, and to recognize that the systems we benefit from are often the same systems that exclude others. But it is also work rooted in hope—hope that systems can be redesigned, that power can be redistributed, and that belonging is not a finite resource.

In 2026, let us move with boldness. Let us design with intention. Let us lead with accountability. And let us remember that equity is not a trend—it is a collective responsibility we carry together.