article · Journal of the Association for Information Systems
Inclusive participation is a significant mechanism for digital innovation, particularly in efforts to improve accessibility. Yet information systems research has largely treated participation as an unproblematic input that uniformly improves innovation development outcomes. Our study challenges that assumption by investigating how participation by persons with disabilities reshapes digital innovation development in contradictory ways. Drawing on an in-depth qualitative study of accessibility-focused digital innovation development, we adopt a paradox perspective to theorize participation as an intensified and temporally compressed source of tension rather than a linear benefit. Our analysis reveals a paradox of participation: while inclusive participation by persons with disabilities improves problem framing, design relevance, and contextual sensitivity, it also disrupts established innovation development practices, destabilizes coordination, complicates decision authority, and slows convergence. By theorizing participation as both generative and constraining, our study advances research on digital innovation development by shedding light on the dynamics of participation rather than its outcomes.
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