Accessible Communication

What is it?

Why is it important?

In the next half-hour…

1. Obligations – legal and regulatory

2. Advice on producing easy-read publications

3. Other media

4. Getting tenants with learning disabilities involved

5. The money side of things

6. Resources

Obligations

• Equality Act 2010• TSA Regulatory framework

– Tenant Involvement and Empowerment standard• customer service, choice and

complaints• Understanding and responding to

diverse needs

– Tenancy Standard: • Allocations and mutual exchange• Tenure

Advice on producing easy-read The 4 steps

Message

Language

Format

Pictures

Message

• Think about your audience– Who are they? What do they

want and need to know?• Involve people from the start. • Decide what your most important

points are.• Don’t overload with detail.

Language

• Use personal language like ‘I’ and ‘you’.

• Be consistent .• Don’t use jargon.• Numerals, not words.• Short, clear sentences. Have one

idea in each sentence.• Avoid ambiguity and acronyms,

initials and idioms.• Get rid of the passive tense.• Use full stops. Try to avoid other

punctuation.

Format• Larger print.• Sans Serif. Avoid condensed fonts.• Avoid using Italics, CAPITALS and

underlining. Bold is OK.• Break up your copy. Use clear headings

and paragraphs.• Left align, not justified.• Avoid columns – they’re confusing.• Don’t split sentences over 2 pages.• Keep to one subject on one page.• Use colour coding.• Use text boxes and bullet points.• Use a lot of space – in forms, between

lines or paragraphs, etc. • Make sure your writing stands out

against the paper.

Pictures

Pictures

• Don’t overload a picture with meaning.

• Use pictures consistently.• Pictures left, words right.• Don’t overlay text on a picture.• Keep everything in focus. • Layout in Word – one image, one

idea. Use tables to keep things in order.

• Pictures or symbols?• Alt Tag your images in Windows.

Other media

• PDFs – will be more accessible if you

have followed the previous three steps.

• Large Print– Don’t just scale up your A4 to A3– One column only– Sans Serif– 16pt or bigger– Don’t overlay text on images– Matte or art paper, not gloss

• Audio• Video

Get tenants with learning disabilities involved – they like it!

• Build it into your planning time – but be aware it may increase your planning time by up to 50%.

• Start and end times.• Joining papers – directions. • Venue and layout – accessible,

informal.• Break it up.• Meeting rules.• Ask their opinion first – not their

supporters.• Outcomes – concrete, not

abstract.

Doing things on a budget• Easy read information

works for everyone.• What to adapt

– TSA– Equalities Act

• Translation services.– Who do you use?

• Design vs content.• Browsealoud and MP3.• One format?

– How much would you spend on printing and designing your Annual Report?

Resources - 1Guidance

• Mencap‘Make it clear’ www.mencap.org.uk/node/5905

• Change ‘How to make information accessible’ www.changepeople.co.uk/freebies

• Department of Health ‘Making written information easier to understand for people with learning disabilities’www.dh.gov.uk search term 15123

• EU ‘Information for all’www.life-long-learning.eu

• Office for Disability Issues‘Delivering Inclusive Communications’http://odi.dwp.gov.uk/docs/iod/inc-com.pdf ‘Delivering technically accessible publications’ http://odi.dwp.gov.uk/docs/iod/del-tia.pdf

www.peoplefirstltd.com

www.friendlyresources.org.uk

www.inspiredservices.org

www.photosymbols.com

www.a2i.co.uk

www.picturesbeyondwords.com

www.housingoptions.org.uk

Local Learning Disability Partnership Boards

Resources - 2Suppliers

Get in touch!

John KayCommunications & Appeals Manager

Tel: 01993 866412email: john.kay@advanceuk.org

Twitter: @AdvanceUKorg Or @positively_ Mobile: 07730 496093