A boutique hotel owner in New York. A cruise line designer in Oslo. A tech founder in Singapore. They gather around a virtual table to ask bigger questions. How can a mobile check-in flow anticipate accessibility needs? How can a century-old property update its entryway without losing its charm? What would it look like to build hospitality experiences around people, not just policies?
At the center of the discussion is Mike Clapper, founder of Able2Global and the creative force behind The Inclusioneer Lab: a new kind of innovation space for the hospitality industry. Unlike other platforms, this is not a consultancy. It’s a living laboratory for rethinking how design, technology, and empathy can converge to build a more inclusive future for travelers everywhere.
Clapper calls it “where empathy meets innovation.” It’s a fitting description for someone who has spent a lifetime navigating inaccessible travel, two decades working in healthcare and tech, and a career determined to prove that accessibility isn’t an afterthought, but an advantage.
Today, he’s known as The Inclusioneer — a title that reflects both his personal mission and the movement he’s building to reimagine hospitality from the inside out. The Lab may be the platform, but the spark behind it is deeply personal.
From Obligation to Opportunity
For all its emphasis on service, the hospitality industry has long struggled to serve travelers with disabilities. The disability travel market exceeds $100 billion in just the US alone, yet many hotels and cruise lines still treat accessibility as a compliance check box rather than a design challenge to embrace.
“Accessibility has been treated like an obligation, not an opportunity,” Clapper explains. “But when you approach it as an innovation problem, everything changes.”
It’s this mindset that gave birth to The Inclusioneer Lab: a collaborative think tank that reframes accessibility as a creative process rather than a constraint. Here, accessibility isn’t the endpoint of regulation; it’s the starting point of imagination.
The Experiment in Action
The Inclusioneer Lab operates on three interconnected pillars: Design That Includes, Hospitality That Elevates, and Systems That Scale. Together, they form a unified approach that helps hospitality brands turn accessibility into meaningful engagement. Not just through compliance, but through design, service, and smart systems that scale.
Through the Lab, Clapper convenes architects, designers, technologists, and service leaders to explore how inclusive design can scale through innovation. Sessions often resemble design sprints more than lectures, like brainstorming how to use AI to predict accessibility needs, how to train staff in empathy-driven service, or how to embed inclusivity into digital check-ins and booking flows.
“We’re moving beyond empathy as a feeling,” Clapper says. “Empathy should be part of the infrastructure.”
Turning Empathy Into Action
In a recent episode Clapper discussed a major hotel chain that surveyed over 1,000 neurodivergent travelers and caregivers to rethink how inclusion shows up at scale. The result wasn’t a marketing initiative. It was a shift in operations. Sensory kits and weighted blankets were added to the in-room amenity program. 3D hotel tours gave families a chance to preview layouts before arrival. Personalized pre-stay communication replaced uncertainty with confidence.
It’s the kind of example Clapper returns to often. Not because it’s flashy, but because it’s repeatable. “When you design for inclusion,” he says, “you don’t narrow the experience, you actually expand it.”That’s the Lab’s philosophy in action: that empathy, when embedded into systems, is both measurable and scalable.
A Movement in Motion
What started as Clapper’s idea for a podcast has grown into a collaborative movement that’s reshaping how the industry talks about access and experience. The Inclusioneer Lab has attracted architects, designers, and global hospitality executives who see inclusion not as a cost, but as a competitive differentiator.
“It’s not advocacy in the traditional sense,” Clapper clarifies. “I’m not asking people to feel sorry for anyone. I’m inviting them to innovate with me.”
This spirit of collaboration has drawn interest from leaders developing high-end resorts, luxury cruise experiences, and hospitality tech platforms. Many, Clapper notes, came to him after seeing his posts about inclusion and innovation online. “They realized this isn’t just a moral issue, it’s a market opportunity,” he says.
Designing the Next Decade
For Clapper, The Inclusioneer Lab is more than a project; it’s a blueprint for the next generation of hospitality leadership. He envisions a world where inclusive innovation is the default, not the differentiator, and where accessibility shapes the future of guest experience design.
“The best innovation labs chase efficiency,” he says. “We’re chasing belonging.”
Looking ahead, Clapper plans to expand the Lab’s reach through partnerships with design schools, hospitality programs, and technology vendors. The goal is to educate the next generation of “inclusioneers.” His consulting firm, Able2Global, bridges the gap between ideas and execution. It helps hospitality brands turn insights from the Lab into strategy, training, and system-wide transformation.
Because in the end, the greatest luxury isn’t exclusivity. It’s creating a world where every guest belongs, and no one feels like an afterthought.
As The Inclusioneer Lab grows, Clapper invites forward-thinking brands to step inside. “If you’re building the future of hospitality,” he says, “you can’t afford to design for yesterday’s guests.”
To learn how your hotel, resort, or cruise line can integrate inclusive innovation into your guest experience strategy, connect with Mike Clapper at able2global.com.
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