Health Services: Digital Technology
(asked on 9th October 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance she has issued to NHS bodies on embedding co-design with blind and partially sighted people throughout the development, testing and ongoing improvement of digital health services.
I refer the Hon Member to the National Health Service guidance available at the link below, which includes the steps taken to recruit users of digital services with different disabilities to test and improve the accessibility of each service:
The guidance is set out in the NHS Service Standard, which requires NHS digital services to be designed so that everyone can use them, including through involving people with disabilities in user research, testing, and service improvement activities.
NHS England applies these principles in the development of the NHS App. The NHS App team follows an inclusive design approach and involves people with lived experience of disability in user research and service development, including engagement with the Royal National Institute of Blind People and people with sight loss to help shape and test services. The team works with specialist organisations and representative groups, and co-designs and tests new features with users who have a range of access needs, including blind and partially sighted people.
The team also undertakes regular independent accessibility audits, tests services against Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 AA standards, and operates dedicated Accessibility Labs to support the development of accessible and inclusive digital services. NHS England has also strengthened its accessibility and inclusive design capability to help ensure that accessibility is considered throughout the development and improvement of digital health services.