Co-design

The SPEAK Project is committed to using a Co-design approach in achieving its objectives. People who work in healthcare are experts in healthcare. People with disability are experts in their own lives and needs. A big part of Co-design is saying both are equally important.

About co-design

Co-design is doing things differently, seeing everyone's strengths, and working together for equitable and inclusive change. The voices, ideas, and stories of people with disability need to be part of how we improve healthcare services. Co-design helps make this happen in a creative and safe way.

Co-design is different from collaboration or consultation. Co-design involves people with disability, families, and staff from the start.

It's more than asking people with a disability what is good or bad. Co-design is about working with people to have a say in:

  • What services are needed in healthcare
  • How are services made within the healthcare
  • How can services be delivered within healthcare

Co-design can be hard because we need to change the way we do things at Alfred Health. Not ask people with disability to change who they are.

SPEAK Project & co-design

To learn about the lived experience of accessing healthcare when you have a disability, in 2022 the SPEAK Project ran workshops where we:

  • Worked with 41 people with a disability who have lived experience of:
    • Aphasia
    • Acquired brain injury (ABI)
    • ADHD
    • Autism
    • Cerebral palsy
    • Deafblind
    • Intellectual disability
    • Vision-impairment
    • A combination of disabilities 
  • Also worked with 12 support people who were:
    • Family and friends
    • Primary carers
    • Paid support worker

We learnt the good and bad things about coming to hospital. We also learnt how we can make hospitals better. You can see the findings from this work in the documents below.

Since the workshops, the SPEAK Project has continued to work with people with disability to make the changes we learned were needed.

SPEAK Project co-design publications

Picture of the co-design report.

Improving Hospitals for People with Hidden Disability - SPEAK Project Co-design Report (2022)

We ran creative workshops and participants spent time on activities including the following:

  • Building relationships
  • Sharing the reason why people care about making hospital better for people with disability
  • Sharing stories of people advocating for themselves and other people with disability
  • Doing an activity about what is like arriving at the hospital, staying there, and leaving the hospital. The activity was called hospital journey mapping
  • Coming up with ideas about what could improve the hospital journey for people
  • Being a part of activities that help come up with ideas for:
    1. Training healthcare staff to support people with disability
    2. Disability Liaison Officers
    3. Patient information and records
    4. Resources that make hospitals better for people with disability

We have incorporated the findings and recommendations for making hospital better for people with disabilities into this report.

The SPEAK Project Co-design Report shares information from co-design workshops. The report includes findings and recommendations for making hospital better for people with disabilities.

The SPEAK Project Co-design Report (PDF)
1 MB
The SPEAK Project Co-design Report (DOC) - Accessible
2 MB

Easy read and summary versions of the report

The SPEAK Project Co-design Summary (DOC) - Accessible
914 KB
The SPEAK Project Co-design Report Easy Read (PDF)
675 KB
The SPEAK Project Co-design Report Easy Read (DOC) - Accessible
2 MB

A Guide for Accessible Co-design and Conversation Starter Cards

The Guide is for anyone who wants to bring people with and without disabilities together to improve services. The Guide is to help make co-design accessible and inclusive for:

  • People with lived experience of disability
  • Support people (such as carers or family members)
  • The disability community
  • Disability researchers
  • Healthcare and other community service staff

Included are resources for starting conversations when preparing for co-design with your team. The conversation cards cover both accessibility and creative activities.

Download the guide and conversation starter cards for use on screens

Listed below are links to download files to use on screens. For example, desktop computers, laptops, or tablets.

Guide for Accessible Co-design (PDF)
1 MB
Guide for Accessible Co-design (DOC)
913 KB
Co-design Conversation Starter Cards (PDF)
525 KB
Access Conversation Starter Cards (DOC)
45 KB
Activity Conversation Starter Cards (DOC)
1 MB

Download the guide and conversation starter cards to print

Listed below are links to download files for printing. For example, at Officeworks.

Guide for Accessible Co-design (for printing)
2 MB
Co-design Conversation Starter Cards (for printing)
739 KB