The three routes3 min read
How the SHAPE route pays people to test and improve
SHAPE pays people with lived experience to find barriers in workplaces, services and spaces and to test the changes that remove them. How an assignment works.
By IT’S POSSIBLE NOWPublished
SHAPE is the IT’S POSSIBLE NOW route that pays people with lived experience to test and improve the places, services and systems everyone uses. It is paid expertise and co-design: people are paid for skilled work, and what they find changes what gets built.
How an assignment works
Every SHAPE assignment follows the same four steps.
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| Barrier identified | A person with lived experience finds where a place, service or system fails |
| Change tested | A change that removes the barrier is tried and tested |
| Evidence recorded | What happened is written down, including what the change cost |
| Change adopted where it works | The organisation keeps the change where the test shows it works |
The fourth step carries a condition on purpose. A change is adopted where the evidence supports it, and the record shows whether it worked and whether it is still in use.
What SHAPE can test
- Workplaces
- Recruitment
- Websites
- Technology
- Services
- Physical environments
- Communications
- How customers move through a service
Why early is cheaper
Accessibility problems are cheapest to fix before a product is finalised, and the people who find them fastest are the people who hit them. A product or service passes through four stages: idea, requirements, production and launch. SHAPE does its most useful work at the first two.
A barrier found before requirements are signed off is a change of plan. The same barrier found after launch is a rebuild, and the people it excluded have already been excluded.
Paid as skilled work
This is skilled work and it is paid as skilled work. Every design is developed and tested with co-designers before its specification is agreed, and co-designers are paid for that work. For a person who wants to earn from what they know about where things fail, SHAPE is the route that does this directly.
What is measured
SHAPE counts paid assignments, barriers identified, changes tested and changes adopted. Each adjustment is also recorded with its cost, whether it worked and, where that applies, whether it is still in use. How we measure what happens next explains why those are the measures.
How SHAPE connects to Difability
difability.uk describes SHAPE as the part of IT’S POSSIBLE NOW that finds barriers with people who have lived experience and tests the changes that remove them. Difability then turns what has been tested into recognised practice, and recognition follows practice: an organisation is recognised for changes it has made, tested and kept in use. What Difability recognition means covers the six levels, and the Difability page shows how the parts fit together.
Taking part
If you want to be paid for finding barriers and testing changes, register your interest and tell us that SHAPE interests you. You can choose more than one route, or “I am not sure”.
If you run a workplace, a service, a website or a space and want its barriers found and tested, you can commission SHAPE or take part in it. The partners page explains how, and the co-design form opens on the right question. Any arrangement depends on fit and on the partners and funding in place, and we will be clear about what is available.
Sources
- Difability: about (read on 7 October 2026)
The route this is about
A next step
It is free, takes a few minutes and commits you to nothing.
Written by
IT’S POSSIBLE NOW
A UK social enterprise run as a Community Interest Company. Who is behind IT’S POSSIBLE NOW
