Design For All feat. Katy Cooper

In this blog, we chat with Katy Cooper, a User Experience Lead at IBM iX, whose career journey spans user research, accessibility advocacy, and impactful design in healthcare and government projects. Katy shares her insights on integrating inclusion from the outset, engaging with diverse user groups, and fostering accessibility within teams.

Can you please introduce yourself, what you do and tell us about your experience?

Hi there! I’m Katy, based in London, and I work as a User Experience Lead at IBM iX, focusing mainly on healthcare and government design projects. My career journey actually began in market and user research, and that’s still at the heart of what I do today. 

One of my favourite parts of my job is getting to chat with all kinds of people from outside my usual social bubble about a whole host of weird and wonderful topics. Some memorable moments include co-creating road sign designs with groups of HGV drivers (I didn’t even know how to drive at the time), shopping for lingerie with strangers, and shadowing GPs and pharmacists to better understand their work. 

Accessibility has always been a big part of my role, but my time leading Research and Customer Insight at Guide Dogs truly cemented my passion for it. There, I saw firsthand the profound impact that accessible—or inaccessible—environments and products can have on people’s lives. 

How important is inclusion to your work?

Very important! Since I’m involved in healthcare and government projects, it’s essential that everyone can access and has an equal experience with these important services and luckily, this is taken very seriously. 

In my role, I focus on integrating inclusion and accessibility considerations right from the start; ensuring that we consult and test ideas or products with people that genuinely reflect the diversity of our society… and then make sure that everyone working on the projects truly understands these individuals’ needs and contexts, so informed, inclusive decisions that benefit everyone can be made.

How are you promoting inclusive design through your work and what are some of the challenges you’ve faced?

Luckily, I haven’t faced much resistance to inclusive design initiatives (which I know isn’t the case everywhere!). However, two common challenges I encounter are: 

1. There’s sometimes a gap in understanding around accessibility in the digital space. A design might be technically compliant, but that doesn’t always guarantee a great user experience. For instance, a button might work, but it won’t help if someone doesn’t understand what it does! To address this, I work closely with teams to connect them with the real people they’re designing for, involving individuals with lived experience in early testing and encouraging team members to see this firsthand.
2. The fear of “getting it wrong” or causing offense, coupled with situations where accessibility considerations are not flagged in an appropriate way within teams can make people hesitant to engage with inclusivity. I try to create a supportive, open environment for these conversations, so people feel comfortable learning and asking questions – or better still involve people with lived experience in these conversations!  

What are 2-3 tips you’d share to other designers trying to design more inclusively?

I feel like a broken record but talk to real people with lived experience! 

Ideally your teams should be diverse themselves, and (particularly if not) you should be talking to/ doing research with diverse groups of people to get their perspective throughout rather than making assumptions for them… 

…and when you do, make sure your teams/ most difficult stakeholders view or get involved with it firsthand so they can really see the impact of their decisions on real life people.  

Additionally, consider accessibility from the very beginning of your projects. It’s super important to integrate these considerations early on.  

Get in touch with charities like RNIB or Scope; they often have services to help recruit participants for research or even assist with accessibility testing for a fee, which supports their charitable work. 

Creating a Community of Practice (CoP) focused on accessibility can also be incredibly beneficial. At IBM iX, we have one – managed by some of my wonderful colleagues – where people can share ideas, seek advice, and ask questions in a supportive environment.  

Lastly, remember to walk the walk—ensure that any presentations or outputs you create, even for internal use, are accessible to everyone. 

What are some of the resources you’ve found helpful to develop your understanding of accessibility and inclusion when it comes to your design work?

I use IBM’s Equal Access Toolkit and accessibility checker on a regular basis, whether it is to help team members understand their role in inclusivity, ensure projects are on the right track or get more detail on WCAG requirements.  

Otherwise .gov have lots of great resources:  

Dos and don’ts on designing for accessibility 

Making your service accessible: an introduction  

Additionally, the RNIB has lots of good resources and published research with people with sight loss. They offer some excellent materials on accessible communications, which can be found here. 

And I’ve listened to lots of great podcasts on accessibility from NNG, Digital accessibility experts and more.

Accessible Design Resources
Following the insightful recommendations from our Design For All participants, we’ve curated an extensive collection of tools, guides, articles, books, blogs, and videos. This resource is specifically designed to support accessibility and inclusion specialists at every stage of their journey.

View Accessible Design Resources