The Problem
Most health education materials assume the reader can translate abstract advice — “eat a balanced diet”, “exercise regularly” — into daily decisions. For many learners with additional needs, that translation step is precisely the hard part. Knowing the eatwell plate is not the same as knowing what to put on your own.
The problem: how do you design health education where the learning is the behaviour — accessible enough for every learner, concrete enough to survive contact with real life?
Context
Feeling Fit & Healthy was developed for young people preparing for more independent lives, where health decisions would increasingly be their own. [setting details to be supplied by Jo]
Constraints
Abstraction barrier. Advice had to become concrete, personal action.
Reading levels. Materials usable across a very wide range.
Sensitivity. Bodies, food and feelings handled without shame.
Habit, not test. Success measured in routines, not recall.
Design Strategy
I designed the programme and created all of its materials: the unit structure, the workbooks, and the activity formats that turned each health topic into something learners practised rather than memorised.
Design Process
Each topic was redesigned as a cycle: encounter the idea concretely, try the behaviour in a supported setting, then anchor it as a personal routine. Workbooks were written in plain language with photographic and visual supports, so the same page worked for readers and non-readers.
Activities were tested and revised based on what learners actually did with them — pages that produced talk but no action were redesigned. [process detail to be supplied by Jo]
The Solution
A health education programme where every unit ends in a behaviour a learner can keep: a meal they can make, a routine they can follow, a way of asking for help they have rehearsed. The materials carry the differentiation so the sessions can stay shared and practical.
"Nobody ever got healthier by labelling a diagram."
Impact
The programme shifted health education from a topic learners heard about to routines they practised, with materials accessible to every member of the group. [outcomes to be confirmed by Jo]
Design Artefacts
Looking Ahead
This project sharpened my conviction that accessibility is instructional design, not an afterthought to it. The plain-language rewrite was never the hard part — redesigning the activity so the behaviour itself was the evidence took the real thought. [Jo's own reflection to replace this draft]