Abstract
This theme track explores the critical intersection of design, health equity, public policies, and participatory practices. We invited submissions addressing how participatory design approaches and community-based practices can tackle structural health disparities and foster more just, accessible, and inclusive healthcare systems. Recognizing that health outcomes are profoundly shaped by social, economic, and environmental determinants, contributions span issues of access to care, cultural diversity, disability, ageing, digital inclusion, and community health infrastructures. Papers are organized around three sessions: Design with others, Care takes shape and Shaping health futures. The eighteen selected papers foreground participatory approaches in which diverse actors, including vulnerable populations, are actively involved in shaping health interventions and policies. Collectively, they interrogate how design can move beyond traditional clinical settings to influence broader determinants of health, challenge performative inclusion, and advance the discourse on design's responsibility in the pursuit of health equity and social justice.
Keywords
Design for Health; Equitable Health; Public Policies; Participatory Practices
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.129
Citation
de Souza Libânio, C., Goldchmit, S.M., Barros Pontes e Silva, T., Tsekleves, E., and Hepburn, L. (2026) Design for equitable health: Public policies and participatory practices, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.129
Creative Commons License
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Included in
Design for equitable health: Public policies and participatory practices
This theme track explores the critical intersection of design, health equity, public policies, and participatory practices. We invited submissions addressing how participatory design approaches and community-based practices can tackle structural health disparities and foster more just, accessible, and inclusive healthcare systems. Recognizing that health outcomes are profoundly shaped by social, economic, and environmental determinants, contributions span issues of access to care, cultural diversity, disability, ageing, digital inclusion, and community health infrastructures. Papers are organized around three sessions: Design with others, Care takes shape and Shaping health futures. The eighteen selected papers foreground participatory approaches in which diverse actors, including vulnerable populations, are actively involved in shaping health interventions and policies. Collectively, they interrogate how design can move beyond traditional clinical settings to influence broader determinants of health, challenge performative inclusion, and advance the discourse on design's responsibility in the pursuit of health equity and social justice.