In conversation with Claire Cooper

Headshot of Hilary Stephenson

Managing Director

2 minute read

Welcome to our inclusive healthcare insights series, where we look at some of the barriers and opportunities people face when they access and use public health services and digital tools. Here, we talk to Claire Cooper and hear her story of accessing healthcare.

Access to health services

As we believe in the power of storytelling to aid our user research and discovery work, we have started to compile some positive (and not so positive) experiences of health and care.

We feel this is a great way to frame problems as well as show how people have embraced digital technology to improve their lives. This includes a number of access stories, where we explore the patient experience initially. We will follow up with interviews from people working in the health system, across a range of design, commissioning and delivery roles.

Our first interview was with Claire Cooper, who kindly chatted about her experience as a patient with our Managing Director, Hilary.

Claire has a condition called Usher Syndrome, which means she is severely sight impaired and deaf. Claire has a service dog, Minnie, who also played an enthusiastic role in our chat on the day.

The interview explored the ways in which Claire receives information, how she would prefer to communicate and her experience of clinical appointments where her condition, and the communication needs it leads to, were perhaps not always understood.

We will be sharing more stories as the #InclusiveHealth insights series develops. We would love to get your suggestions on who you'd like to hear from and we very much welcome any sharing you can do to amplify their stories.