Agency and Access: Redesigning the Prison Health Care Request Process

This chapter describes the pain points experienced by many prisoners in trying to request medical attention, and the participatory co-design workshop process used by QUT Design Lab researchers to redevelop the Health Services Request Form into an easier-to-use, icon-based form that works for all prisoners, including those with low literacy or who have English as an additional language. The chapter details the international background of difficulties found in providing healthcare services to prisoners before detailing the local circumstances, including broad demographic categories of many incarcerated prisoners in Queensland. The designers then describe their research and participatory design process, before ending the chapter with the re-designed Health Services Request Form.