What is co-production and why is it important?
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What is co-production and why is it important?

  • Writer: Meg
    Meg
  • Jul 2
  • 3 min read
An illustration of a man in a shirt and tie on the right thinking, with a thought bubble next to him that includes the word co-production.

What is co-production and why is it important?

This month at Easy Read Online, we’ve been thinking about co-production in relation to disability and accessibility. In this blog post, we’ll explain what co-production is within the context of disability and explore some of its benefits.

What is co-production?

While co-production is often broadly understood as working together to create or deliver something, its meaning in the disability context is more specific. 

An illustration of an older man standing shaking hand with a younger man in a wheelchair.

In the disability sector, co-production is defined as ‘organisations and experts by experience working in equal partnership to design, develop, and deliver services’. In this context, experts by experience are:

  • Disabled people.

  • People with learning disabilities.

  • Neurodivergent people.

  • People with long-term health conditions.

  • People who use accessibility services.

These are people who have direct, lived experience of disability or using services. Elements of true co-production include:

  1. Sharing power - organisations must make decisions with experts by experience, not by themselves, so that everyone involved has an equal voice.

  2. Valuing lived experience - people with direct, lived experience should be seen as experts and their knowledge should be treated as equally important as professional knowledge.

  3. Accessibility and inclusion - when co-production takes place, information and spaces must be accessible to everyone. 

  4. Early involvement - disabled people should be involved from the very beginning, not added in later. Disabled people should be included in shaping and designing ideas, not just give feedback once ideas are formed. 

  5. Ongoing collaboration - co-production should be continuous, not a one-off activity.

  6. Mutual benefit - everyone involved in co-production should gain something from being involved, and the contributions of disabled people should be recognised. 

Easy Read Online and co-production - a case study

It can be easier to understand co-production when it is thought of in practice. We at Easy Read Online are an organisation that provides an Easy Read translation and design service. Whilst our client list is primarily made up of other organisations, the end-users of our Easy Read documents are usually disabled people. We understand that our clients put their trust in us to produce accessible and high-quality Easy Read content that truly meets the needs of disabled people. So how do we ensure this happens? Through co-production!

We have been creating Easy Read documents since the early 2000s, and started our writing journey by co-producing documents with people with learning disabilities. Our founder did this in his role at People First in Liverpool. All of the writing methodologies and illustration styles we use today were born out of co-production and have since been developed in the continued testing we do with end users at Mencap Liverpool & Sefton. 

A birds eye view Illustration of a group of people around a table and the words 'Easy Read' on the table.

The benefits of co-production


Illustration of a young woman giving a thumbs up.

Co-production can benefit everyone involved - and even the world around us! When it’s done well, co-production shifts disabled people from being excluded to being active decision-makers.

For disabled people, co-production in practice looks like:

  • Increased empowerment. 

  • Better-suited services that actually meet disabled people’s needs. 

  • Fewer barriers to services. 

  • More confidence and skills, like communication and leadership, which can lead to further opportunities. 

  • Increased feelings of belonging. 

For organisations, good co-production can lead to:

  • Fewer complaints and service failures.

  • Better uptake of services. 

  • Reduced costs, because co-production catches issues earlier when redesigning, and changes are cheaper.

  • Better spending patterns, because organisations will spend money on what actually works rather than assumptions. 

  • Increased trust from the public. 

To everyone else’s benefit, co-production leads to:

  • More accessible public spaces and services.

  • More effective spending of public money.

  • Improved systems, like education, health care, social care and emergency response services. 

  • A more accepting and understanding society, which has been proven to improve everybody’s well-being. 

These lists are not exhaustive and capture only a few of the main benefits of  co-production. To find out more about co-production and its positive effects on the world around us, you can check out these websites:

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