The Accessible Stay-book

The Accessible Stay Book followed a rigorous human-centred design process, grounded in social innovation and service design principles. Beginning with extensive desk research, stakeholder interviews, and a site visit to a MediStays partner hotel, providing firsthand insights into the lived experiences of need knowers accessing STA. Service maps, journey maps, and system blueprints were developed to uncover key friction points across the accommodation journey. An unmet need was identified for neurodivergent and non-verbal travellers experiencing sensory overload, communication challenges, and anxiety in unfamiliar environments. Iterative ideation sessions and co-design workshops with MediStays, TOM (the disability innovation network), and people with lived experience informed the development of a portable, sensory-friendly journey planner that addressed both emotional and logistical travel challenges.

The design was prototyped across multiple iterations, with feedback gathered from MediStays staff, TOM representatives, and a family member of a team member with a hidden disability. This participatory testing resulted in critical refinements, broadening the tool’s applicability beyond STA to general travel and care journeys. The final outcome integrates a visual journey planner with reflective prompts, packaged within a durable, washable fabric tote bag. It allows users to pre-plan accommodation stays, carry essential items, and reflect on their experiences to build confidence and independence over time.

Presented to MediStays with an implementation strategy, the ASB was endorsed for future development and pilot use. The project exceeded expectations, offering a scalable, dignified, and emotionally supportive tool with potential application across disability, healthcare, and community services. Its user-centred approach, practical functionality, and emphasis on dignity and independence position it as a benchmark for inclusive, co-designed travel tools within Victoria and beyond.

The Accessible Stay Book meets and exceeds the core principles of good design through its focus on functionality, accessibility, emotional safety, and sustainability. Designed for people with hidden disabilities, including non-verbal individuals and those with neurodivergent needs, the product integrates clear, intuitive visual communication, tactile-friendly materials, and reflective prompts to support both the physical and emotional demands of travel.

The tool’s dual function as a sensory-friendly journey planner and practical tote bag ensures usability across multiple contexts, reducing anxiety by enabling users to pre-plan journeys and carry essential items discreetly. Its holistic user experience was shaped through co-design workshops, iterative testing, and continuous feedback from people with lived experience and disability advocates, ensuring it met diverse accessibility needs without compromising dignity or comfort.

Materially, the decision to produce the product in durable, washable fabric supports long-term use, reducing reliance on disposable, single-purpose resources. This aligns with circular economy principles while enhancing safety through easy cleaning and hygiene maintenance in healthcare and accommodation environments. By reframing an accessibility tool as a dignified, empowering travel companion rather than a clinical aid, Accessible Stay Book establishes a new benchmark for inclusive, human-centred design in Victoria. Its universal, adaptable framework allows it to be integrated across disability, health, and travel services, with export potential for national and international markets.

The project demonstrates the broader value of investing in professionally executed, co-designed solutions. It highlights how professional design processes, anchored in lived experience, research, and iterative refinement—can produce outcomes that are socially impactful, commercially viable, and culturally significant.

Accessible Stay Book positions Victoria as a leader in inclusive service and product design, setting a precedent for dignified, scalable, and emotionally intelligent design practices locally and globally.

The Accessible Stay Book addresses an overlooked challenge in disability and travel services: supporting neurodivergent and nonverbal individuals to safely and confidently navigate unfamiliar environments. Existing accessible travel solutions typically focus on physical access, neglecting the sensory, emotional, and communication barriers experienced by people with hidden disabilities. This project introduces an innovative, sensory friendly journey planner that centres emotional wellbeing alongside practical needs.

The key innovation lies in its dual function design,  a visual journey planner integrated within a durable fabric tote bag. This allows users to pre-plan travel steps visually, reducing anxiety by providing predictability and structure. Reflection prompts built into the tool encourage discussion with caregivers, fostering gradual independence over repeated use. Unlike conventional resources, the Accessible Stay Book combines tangible utility with emotional reassurance. Its portable, washable format allows it to serve as both a travel organiser and an anxiety management tool, supporting users through unfamiliar spaces while discreetly carrying essential items such as ID, tickets, and medication.

The design was developed through iterative co-design and testing, incorporating feedback from MediStays, TOM representatives, and individuals with lived experience. This process refined the product to meet a diverse range of access needs and broadened its potential application beyond Short Term Accommodation to any form of travel or public outing. Its flexible framework offers a new model for inclusive service design, one that is scalable, replicable, and adaptable to various health, education, and community services.

By prioritising sensory, emotional, and cognitive needs in travel planning, Accessible Stay Book delivers a patient centred innovation previously absent in Australia’s disability services sector. It sets a precedent for embedding emotional wellbeing into accessible travel tools and represents a significant advancement in inclusive design practice, both locally and internationally.

The Accessible Stay Book delivers meaningful, long lasting impact across social, environmental, and economic dimensions. Socially, it empowers people with hidden disabilities to travel with greater confidence, independence, and emotional safety. By addressing communication and anxiety challenges, the tool enhances personal dignity and wellbeing for users and their caregivers. A family member of a project team member, who has a hidden disability, highlighted the product’s immediate value in daily life, underscoring its real world relevance.

Environmentally, the project applies circular economy principles through the use of durable, washable fabric, minimising reliance on single use resources and reducing waste. By integrating multiple functions into one item, it reduces material consumption and encourages long term use. The product’s reusability and easy maintenance align with sustainable design practices that prioritise resource conservation and waste reduction throughout its lifecycle.

Economically, Accessible Stay Book has strong commercial potential for application across healthcare, travel, and community sectors. Its adaptable framework makes it suitable for use in Short Term Accommodation, medical appointments, education settings, and public outings, supporting both formal services and informal carers. This versatility opens new markets for inclusive, accessible products and service tools. The project reinforces the importance of professional, co-designed design processes. By investing in lived experience research, collaborative development, and iterative testing, Accessible Stay Book demonstrates how thoughtfully designed tools can address overlooked service gaps and produce lasting, scalable social benefit.

This work strengthens Victoria’s reputation as a leader in socially responsible, human centred design. It offers a replicable model for inclusive service design both nationally and internationally, setting a benchmark for how professional design practice can create practical, compassionate solutions that improve lives and deliver measurable community impact.

The Accessible Stay Book was designed with a strong focus on sustainability, circular economy principles, and material longevity from its earliest development stages. The product replaces disposable, single use travel planners with a durable, washable fabric format, significantly reducing waste and promoting reuse. Its multipurpose design, combining a journey planner with a practical tote bag, consolidates several functions into one item, reducing material consumption and encouraging a minimalist, practical travel routine. A unique feature is the product’s open, adaptable framework.

The Accessible Stay Book includes a user guide encouraging individuals to customise or recreate the tool using materials readily available at home. This empowers users to upcycle existing resources, reduces reliance on new material production, and extends the life of existing textiles. It also supports social sustainability by offering flexibility for users in different economic and cultural contexts.

Throughout development, careful consideration was given to material selection, prioritising options that were durable, hygienic, and easy to maintain. The washable nature of the fabric enhances the product’s usability within health and accommodation settings, ensuring it remains safe and functional over long term, repeated use. By broadening the product’s application beyond Short Term Accommodation to include medical appointments, outings, and everyday travel, the Accessible Stay Book extends its usable lifespan. This multipurpose capability minimises the need for additional tools or disposable journey planning materials, further reducing environmental impact.

Accessible Stay Book aligns with Victoria’s circular economy goals by demonstrating how simple, user centred design can minimise waste, maximise material longevity, and encourage sustainable practices without compromising function or emotional value. It offers a practical, scalable example of circular design applied within an inclusive service framework, contributing to Victoria’s leadership in sustainable, human centred design innovation.