10 minutes
Bring people with disabilities into the design Move from consulting people about a finished proposal to designing with them from the start, with compensation, influence and a record of what changed because of them.
What you’ll be able to do Design the solution with people with disabilities, compensated and with real influence, and document their contribution and how it changed the plan. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: What should the team do instead? Document a next step for Bring people with disabilities into the design: Before your team narrows options, hold one working session with people who meet the barrier, paid or with protected time, and write down what they changed. Consultation reacts; co-design shapes Consultation shows people a proposal and asks what they think. Co-design puts them at the table while the options are still open. The difference shows in the result: consulted people catch errors in a design built without them; co-designers change what gets built. For a capstone, co-design means at least one working session with people who meet the barrier before the team narrows its options, and a record of what changed because of them. That record is part of the work, not a courtesy.
Three conditions make it real. Compensation or protected time : disabled colleagues’ hours are recognized in their workload with their supervisor’s agreement; service users, self-advocates and community partners are paid at a professional rate through a mechanism finance confirms, with alternatives offered where payment could affect benefits. Influence : the team goes in with a map and questions, not a finished draft, and is willing to change direction. A visible record : who was involved, on what terms, what they said, and what the team changed or declined to change and why, shared back with them.
Three things to avoid. Do not ask one person to speak for all disabled people; recruit more than one where you can, and say plainly that each speaks from their own experience. Do not require anyone to disclose a diagnosis to participate; the question is what does not work, not why. Do not ask people to review the team’s work as a favor; that is the unpaid labor disabled people are asked for constantly, and the capstone should model something better.
A co-design working session, in outline Share the problem statement and the barrier map in an accessible format, at least three working days ahead.
Open with the questions, not a proposal: what does the map miss, what would a good result feel like, what has been tried and failed?
Generate options together; write them all down before judging any.
Ask which options people would trust, and what would make each one fail in practice.
Agree on how the team will report back, and on what terms participants want to be credited.
Within a week, send the record: what was heard, what changed, what did not and why.
Pay for it and show what changed What you can change The team controls whether affected people shape the design or approve it, and whether their time is treated as expertise.
What to watch for Do not send a finished draft for sign-off and call it co-design. Do not ask one colleague to represent everyone or to disclose why they need what they need.
Your next step Confirm compensation or protected time this week and schedule the working session before options are narrowed.
The team had already decided captions would fix it. When they finally sat down with us, we told them the real problem was that asking for anything meant announcing it to the whole meeting. The access line with a private contact came from that conversation, not from the draft.
Composite staff perspective, illustrative Consultation or co-design? “Please review the attached proposal”
Consultation, at the end, unpaid. Useful for catching errors; not what the capstone requires.
“Here is our map; what does it miss?”
Co-design. Options are still open and the people affected are shaping them.
“Can you speak for staff with disabilities?”
Avoid. Each person speaks from their own experience; recruit more than one and say so.
“What is your disability?”
Never required. Ask what does not work and what would. The reason is the person’s to share or not.
“Here is what changed because of you”
The record that makes co-design real, shared back within a week and credited on the participants’ terms.
Carry this forward Co-design means people who meet the barrier shape the options before they are narrowed, not react to a proposal after.
Compensation, protected time and a visible record of influence are what distinguish co-design from consultation.
Never ask one person to represent all disabled people, disclose a diagnosis or review the team’s work for free.
One knowledge check; a co-design record for your team’s barrier naming who was involved, how they were compensated and what changed because of them.
Before your team narrows options, hold one working session with people who meet the barrier, paid or with protected time, and write down what they changed.
Browse and download only. Course notes are not typed or saved on this page.
Reset this lesson
Previous lesson Next lesson Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
