We wanted to get more understanding of the widespread questions and struggles we were sensing among our volunteers and users. We wanted to start a discussion with the software developers and show them our struggles and questions. We want to work towards a sustainable future, with a digital economy that includes the most vulnerable members of society. Therefore, everybody needs to be able to use the digital tools of sharing initiatives. We wanted to create a connection between the software developers and the end users of the tools. We wanted to show the software world that user friendliness and inclusion are necessary and that their tools are currently not sufficient. We wanted to understand the software development process, in order to ensure better communication regarding our needs towards the engineering community. We wanted to create a larger network of like-minded people in Europe working on a sustainable future through promoting lending/borrowing instead of owning/buying toys and baby supplies. Our organisations and participants needed to feel like they were not alone: there is a common ground that unites us. We felt helpless in conversations regarding software and we needed to change that into a feeling of empowerment.
We, three different organisations, found each other in our search for accessible and inclusive software for lending libraries such as toy libraries and babyteks. We are all organisations working with a lot of female volunteers and we feel a great resistance and struggle when it comes to working with software. We wanted to explore this aspect of our daily (volunteering) work. Why do we feel that these softwares are not made for us and why do we struggle with them? Is there a way to make them more inclusive so that we and other people feel more at ease in working with them? The software world is very male dominated, is gender in one way or another significant in these questions? We wanted to explore the idea of social inclusion and software design. We wanted to receive feedback from volunteers and our members. We wanted to start a conversation with the software developers. In other words, we were searching for tools and language to express our struggles and needs.