Education & Access

Access Relay

Making healthcare accessibility requests visible, trackable, and actionable.

What it does

Access Relay is a no-code healthcare accessibility coordination platform for patients with disabilities or accommodation needs and the clinics that serve them. Before an appointment, patients can submit their accessibility needs, including the clinic, appointment date, type of assistance, and stage of care. Clinic staff can review each request, update its status, and add follow-up notes. Patients can then check whether their accommodation has been received and confirmed. Access Relay is designed for community clinics, primary-care practices, nonprofit health centres, and the patients who rely on them.

Inspiration

The idea was inspired by my Global Health studies, my experience collecting patient data at TCCI, and my volunteer work with nursing-home residents living with dementia. These experiences showed me that accessibility barriers often begin before a medical appointment. Patients may not know whom to contact, requests may be recorded inconsistently, and clinic staff may learn about an accommodation too late. I wanted to create a simple system that allows patients to communicate their needs early and makes each request visible and trackable.

How we built it

I used Cursor agent. It includes three main interfaces: a patient request form, a patient status page, and a staff dashboard. A backend workflow saves the submitted form data and initializes each request with a clear status. Staff can then review the request, update its progress, and add notes. The interface uses clear labels, simple navigation, and standardized accessibility categories to reduce confusion.

Challenges we ran into

One challenge was designing a workflow that was simple for patients while still giving clinic staff enough information to act on each request. Another challenge was connecting the form inputs, database fields, status updates, and patient-facing results within a no-code platform. I addressed these problems by separating the patient and staff interfaces, using standardized request categories and status values, and testing the complete process from form submission to staff confirmation.

What's next

The next step is to test Access relay with patients, healthcare staff, and disability-focused community organizations. Future versions could include automatic email or text notifications, multilingual support, role-based staff access, stronger privacy controls, and integration with clinic appointment systems. I would also conduct a formal accessibility review based on WCAG guidelines and use real user feedback to improve the request form, status language, and staff workflow.