Ik Onderzoek Mee — Radboudumc's Co-Designed Health Monitor for People with Low Literacy or Mild Intellectual Disability

An estimated 2.5 million Dutch adults have low literacy, and people with mild intellectual disabilities are routinely excluded from population health surveys because standard questionnaires are too complex.

Radboudumc, working with co-researchers with lived experience from MEE, STERKplaats LFB Nijmegen and Foundation ABC, redesigned a COVID-19 health monitor into an accessible platform ('Ik Onderzoek Mee') using simplified language, reduced answer categories and text-to-speech support.

The monitor was fielded in three cross-sectional rounds (Nov 2020-Nov 2021), gathering 412, then 351, then 296 respondents; 47% completed it with personal support. The accessible design let the team detect that this population reported more negative emotions and more difficulty understanding and following COVID-19 guidance than the general population.

Findings were published in TSG in March 2024, and the co-design lessons subsequently informed a follow-up participatory study on inclusive questionnaire design, indicating the practice has moved from a one-off adaptation toward a reusable, documented methodology.