Conversational agents areincreasingly being introduced in healthcare to enhance access to healthcare andaddress limited healthcare resources. The aim of this study was to exploreexperiences of a conversational agent for symptom checking and triage toolassessing the urgency and appropriate level of care implemented in publichealthcare from a cognitive accessibility perspective.

With a Participatory ActionResearch approach, this study includes: (1) A Participatory Cognitive BarrierWalkthrough in workshops with people with cognitive impairment (n = 7),product owner representatives (n = 4), and researchers (n = 5),followed by a workshop for improvement suggestions; (2) a paired interview withhealthcare system specialists (n = 2).

The data from the study wereanalyzed using reflexive thematic analysis, resulting in five themes: ‘Thedesign of the eHealth service created expectations that were not met duringinteraction’; ‘The eHealth service uses a difficult language’; ‘The eHealthservice triggers negative emotions and reactions’; ‘The layout and graphicdesign of the eHealth service is difficult and sometimes misleading’; and ‘TheeHealth service lacks in trustworthiness’.

The findings show the importance of including people withlived experience of cognitive impairment, to expose and find solutions forcognitive accessibility issues.

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