Sam Rykers

Inclusive Change: Making Accessibility a Core Practice

Sam Rykers is the founder of The Change Factor, a change management consultancy that helps organisations successfully adopt new technologies and ways of working. With a background in technology leadership and transformation roles, Sam has led large-scale change initiatives across industries including education, travel, government, and professional services. Sam’s work focuses on helping organisations navigate complex change while ensuring people feel supported, capable, and confident in new environments.

Sam is particularly interested in how emerging technologies such as AI are reshaping the way organisations work and how change professionals can evolve alongside them. Through consulting, workshops, and speaking engagements, Sam encourages leaders and change practitioners to approach transformation with curiosity, clarity, and care.

Her workshop –

Accessibility is often considered during technology design, but it is rarely embedded into the practice of change management itself. Yet the way we communicate, train, engage, and support people through change can either enable participation or unintentionally create barriers.

This session explores how change practitioners can make accessibility a deliberate part of their practice. From communication formats and meeting design to training materials and stakeholder engagement approaches, small decisions can have a significant impact on who is able to participate fully in change.

Participants will leave with practical ideas to make their change activities more inclusive, ensuring that more people can understand, engage with, and succeed in new ways of working. Inclusive change is not an additional layer of work — it is a way of designing change so that it works better for everyone.