Digital health is growing fast – but who gets left behind when services are designed without accessibility in mind? 

In this episode Sebastian speaks with Hilary Stevenson,  Managing Director at Nexer Digital , about what it really takes to build health and life sciences technologies that work for everyone. 

Drawing on years of experience across the public sector, healthcare and digital services, Hilary explains why accessibility is not just a compliance requirement or a technical checklist. It is a clinical safety issue, a trust issue and, ultimately, a health equality issue. 

The discussion covers the post-pandemic acceleration of digital health, the risks of designing for the “average” user, and why disabled, neurodivergent and digitally excluded people need to be involved much earlier in the design process. Hilary also shares why automated testing is not enough, why accessibility overlays often fail, and how biased or incomplete patient data can affect the future of AI in healthcare and life sciences. 

 Key topics: 

• How the digital health landscape has changed since the pandemic 

• Why accessibility is more than a compliance requirement 

• How inaccessible services can deepen health inequalities 

• Why usability should be treated as a clinical safety issue 

• Why disabled and neurodivergent users should be involved from the start 

• What automated testing can and cannot reveal about accessibility 

• How exclusion from digital services can lead to biased patient data 

• What AI and LLMs mean for the future of inclusion in healthcare and life sciences 

⏱ Timestamps: 

 00:00 – Introduction 

01:30 – How digital inclusion in healthcare has changed

03:59 – Accessibility standards, NHS requirements and vendor challenges 

07:36 – Why workarounds are not enough 

09:50 – The risks of excluding users from digital health services  

13:34– Why accessibility should be built in from the start 

19:27 – Patient data, AI and the future of inclusion in life sciences 

🎙 Guest: 

Hilary Stevenson, Digital Inclusion and Accessibility Leader at Nexer Digital

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hilarystephenson/ 

🎙Host: 

 Sebastian Dzieniak 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastian-dzieniak/