Where traditional accessibility work often happens as a compliance pass near the end of a project, inclusive design treats disabled users as part of the core audience throughout research, design, and development. Microsoft’s well-known Inclusive Design toolkit frames this as designing for people with permanent, temporary, and situational limitations all at once, such as someone with one arm, someone with a temporary arm injury, and a new parent holding a baby.
Building this way from the start is almost always cheaper than retrofitting accessibility after launch.