6. How to collaborate with disabled people

When disabled people are excluded from planning and decision-making, access measures can become guesswork and often miss the mark. Involving disabled consultants, artists, staff, and community members allows organisations to make informed choices, anticipate challenges, and avoid reinforcing outdated assumptions. It also fosters a sense of shared ownership and accountability. This section is about how to collaborate with disabled people well.

Disabled people are experts by experience and being open about their meaningful involvement means other disabled people are more likely to trust that you will make your work accessible. But also be aware that many disabled people may have consultation fatigue and of how to avoid this.

Disabled people should also be part of any evaluation. To make your practice sustainable there needs to be a clear, achievable Action Plan with outcomes that can be measured e.g. evaluation of Front of House access provision pre- and post-access specific training.

Learning about access is only useful if it leads to action. Many organisations invest time in training, research, or consultation but fail to implement changes due to time pressures, competing priorities, or fear of getting things wrong. Prioritising action – even small, incremental steps – builds momentum and demonstrates commitment. Importantly, this action must be informed by ongoing engagement and evaluation, allowing organisations to adapt based on real experience rather than static plans.

When disabled people are excluded from planning and decision-making, access measures can become guesswork and often miss the mark. Involving disabled consultants, artists, staff, and community members allows organisations to make informed choices, anticipate challenges, and avoid reinforcing outdated assumptions. It also fosters a sense of shared ownership and accountability.

There is also sometimes a reluctance to ask for direct feedback from disabled people. More often, organisations might only rely on professional disabled consultants, instead of the disabled staff or visitors that they already know.

It is important to bear in mind that some disabled people and communities experience consultation fatigue. This is the mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion that is experienced because they are being asked to participate in consultations too often, particularly when they see little or no, meaningful change as a result. So, it is important that consultation is recompensed, efforts are recognised, and organisations are clear about how, if, and when change will happen as a result of engagement, including where they are limited in what it is not possible to change.

Successful collaboration with disabled people requires access to be built in at every stage, from finding the people you will collaborate with through to evaluating what you have done together.

1. Planning & Recruitment

• Asking co-designers what they need: Facilitators communicate with the participants before work starts to ask them about any accessibility needs they may have, and if there are any accessibility services they’d like arranged.
• Map Access Needs: Before beginning, conduct an access audit to capture specific communication, sensory, and physical requirements (e.g., live captioning, BSL interpretation, wheelchair accessibility, assistance dogs).
• Remove Geographic Barriers: Consider going to the participants instead of forcing them to travel. Provide options for both in-person and online participation. See this Remote Co-design Guide for tips on ensuring accessibility.
• Compensate Time: Compensate participants for their valuable insights and time (e.g. payment or via vouchers). Be clear around time expectations e.g. if you expect collaborators to do work outside of meetings be clear about how much time could or should be spent and how this will be compensated.
• Use relevant resources: Use relevant co-design resources to review how to set up community-focused co-design.

2. Discovery & Understanding

• Flexible Engagement: Offer diverse, creative methods for sharing stories and experiences and make sure co-design activities are as multi-modal as possible, allowing for different kinds of expression (talking, writing, drawing, acting out, etc). Consider how your activities can be flexible to allow responding in the moment to unexpected or changing circumstances.
• Safe Environments: Provide different environmental options (e.g. quiet, enclosed rooms versus open spaces) so participants can choose where they feel most comfortable.
• Limit Meeting Times: Keep workshops or collaborative sessions to a reasonable length and schedule frequent breaks to prevent cognitive and physical fatigue.

3. Co-creation & Ideation

• Accessible Materials: Ensure all physical and digital materials (such as slides, agendas, and worksheets) are accessible, and distribute them beforehand so attendees can familiarise themselves with the content.
• Toolkits: Explore the accessible practices and methods listed in this resource as a starting point and adapt them to your context.
• Expert facilitation: If the conversation is going to be on a difficult, sensitive, or potentially polarising topic, consider using experienced or specialist facilitators who have direct lived experience of those challenges or topics.
• Space: prepare an access guide including information and images of the venue, public transit access to the venue, details about the facilities, food, and activities and send it to participants at least a few days ahead of the session. This will give participants enough time to become familiar with the space and to know what to expect.

4. Testing, Prototyping & Evaluation

• Involve real users: Ensure disabled people are directly involved in user testing and evaluating prototypes.
• Continuous feedback: Treat co-design as a cyclical process. Maintain open, continuous feedback loops so participants can refine or discard design ideas iteratively. Be clear about what actions have happened as a result of the codesign process, what hasn’t, and why.

For an example of co-creation in practice, see this blog post from The Neurodiverse Museum about resource creation.

It is important to evaluate your collaboration. This evaluation also needs to be accessible. Consider:

• Audio-recorded feedback
• BSL video submissions
• Easy Read surveys
• In-person conversation for evaluation
• Anonymous digital forms compatible with screen readers

Evaluation should be accessible in format and in timing.