Co-designing accessible mental health support for disabled jobseekers

For many disabled people, the journey into or within employment can involve barriers that extend beyond the workplace. Managing a disability can affect mental wellbeing, confidence and opportunities, especially when combined with barriers to inclusive employment. Nationally, only around 54% of disabled people are employed, compared to over 80% of their non-disabled peers (source: UK Government). Mental health challenges—such as anxiety, stress and social isolation—are a consequence of this inequality. 

Wellmind Health, supported by a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) innovation grant, set out to address this issue through Be Mindful Workplace, a digital programme based on mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). The goal is that is tailored for people in the workplace with disabilities. To succeed, the programme needed to be co-produced with those it aimed to support, ensuring real-world relevance, inclusivity and usability. 

Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber played a central role in embedding lived experience at the heart of the programme. Working in partnership with Wellmind Health and Evenbreak, a social enterprise specialising in job opportunities for disabled people, Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber recruited members for an independent Public Advisory Group (PAG). The response was overwhelming, with 185 applications received and 11 members selected, representing a rich diversity of disability and mental health experiences. 

The PAG was designed to encourage open and honest discussion, supported by digital tools adapted to meet members’ accessibility needs. Our role in hosting the group independently has been important in creating a safe environment where participants can share their perspectives freely. 

The insights provided by the PAG members have shaped every stage of the programme’s development. Their feedback has influenced the design and functionality of the digital platform, ensuring accessibility features such as adjustable playback speeds, full transcripts, British Sign Language interpretation, and Easy Read formats are built in from the outset. The group has also contributed to the evaluation design, ensuring the platform’s implementation will be measured in ways that reflect what matters most to users. 

By embedding lived experience throughout design and evaluation, we have helped ensure that Be Mindful Workplace is more than just another digital health tool. It is a solution shaped by and for the people it aims to support. Early outcomes demonstrate that this approach has created a product that is accessible, relevant and more likely to have a positive impact on users’ mental health and employment journeys. 

The PAG’s input has already resulted in tangible improvements to the platform, from technical adaptations that make mindfulness exercises more accessible, to the inclusion of avatars and companions designed to enhance user engagement. More importantly, the process has given a voice to people who are often excluded from service design, creating a product that reflects the realities of disabled people’s lives and challenges. 

This model also provides a wider benefit to the health and care system by demonstrating how inclusive digital innovation can reduce inequalities, support mental wellbeing and enable people to thrive in employment. 

Digital health tools that are designed without meaningful input from the people who will ultimately use them could look good, but in practice may fail to meet the real needs of users. By embedding lived experience through an independently managed Public Advisory Group, Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber has ensured that the voices of disabled people shaped every stage of Be Mindful Workplace. 

This approach was critical not only for improving accessibility and design, but also for building trust, ensuring authenticity, and creating a programme that people feel ownership of. Our expertise in structuring and facilitating this engagement turned user feedback into a driver of innovation, demonstrating how involving patients and the public is not an optional extra but a vital stage in developing services that work. 

Interested to learn more? Discover how Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber can help your organisation embed lived experience, improve accessibility, and co-design services that deliver real impact.