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Remember, if you want more information on any aspect of SAIF, ourProject Officers, Sarah Smith and Steve Harvey will be happy to speak toyou. You can reach them at the SAIF Office - contact details are at the endof the newsletter.
Welcome to the fifth edition of SAIF News. Recently, we successfullyapplied to the Scottish Executive for a further 3 years funding.
This means that we have enough money to continue the work we'vealready done in improving information provision for disabled people andcarers. Our new funding runs from April 1999 to March 2002.
Inside this issue of SAIF News you'll find details of what we'veachieved so far and our plans for the future, including how to subscribe toUpdate as well as how to receive the SAIF Standards.
In addition, we are looking for new forum members to inform anddevelop our objectives. If you have a contribution to make - get in touchwith us. We are very keen to involve people with direct experience of theproblems which disabled people and carers face in accessing information.
One of the recommendations in Enabling Information (1995) was that asecond tier service be set up as an expert resource for information andadvice providers. The new service, which opened for business in September1999, is called UPDATE.
SAIF prepared the specification for this work and the ScottishExecutive awarded the contract to run the new service to a consortium ofthree organisations:
All of these organisations are led by disabled people themselves.
Update provides disability and impairment-related information toadvice and information providers throughout Scotland. Update's expertisehelps them offer more accurate, more readily accessible information totheir users.
Any organisation which wants access to the most accurate, relevant andup-to-date disability-related information should join Update. For detailsof what Update provides and information about how to join contact:
Lionel Long
Manager
Update
27 Beaverhall Road
Edinburgh
EH7 4JE
Tel: 0131 558 5200
Fax: 0131 558 5201
Minicom: 0131 558 5202
email:
website: http://www.update.org.uk
Now that Update is a reality, SAIF's job is to monitor and evaluatethe service on behalf of the Scottish Executive. In practice, this means wemust agree ways to make sure that the new service is set up properly andoperates effectively.
We are already holding monthly liaison meetings with the UpdateSteering Group and will continue to meet with them regularly over the nextthree years to assess how effective a service is being provided. Our job is to act on behalf of all the organisations out there and ensurethat they have access to accurate, expert advice and information.
SAIF's Standards for Disability Information and Advice Provision inScotland are now complete.
When we started out we wanted to provide a tool to be used byorganisations to help them make their services accessible to disabledpeople and carers. SAIF debated how to make the standards comprehensive yetuser friendly, rigorous but realistic and attainable.
We hope we've produced something which will support organisationswhich want to improve and become more inclusive as well as user groups whoare looking for help in lobbying for changes to the services that they needaccess to.
The Standards are available in print, on CD-Rom and computer disk, andof course other formats on request. Everyone on our mailing list willreceive a copy as a matter of course. Currently, we are disseminatingcopies to our target audience.
Of course we know that our work on Standards won't stop after publication. The real test will be howand if people use them and considerable effort will be required by SAIF toensure that the goals set by the standards are met over the coming years.We will need to look at ways to support organisations in implementing the Standards as well as consider thepossibility of an accreditation scheme for those who achieve them. In order to make the Standards really effective we need feedback fromyou, the users.
Please let us know what you think of the Standards we've produced andwhat additional support you need to make services more accessible todisabled people and carers.
As with SAIF Standards, the publication of this directory is imminent.The Directory contains approximately 100 entries from throughout Scotlandof organisations who can produce information in different formats.
The Directory tells you what services eachorganisation provides and gives details of the cost of producinginformation in formats like Braille and audio tape, what the likelytimescale will be for production and other key factors to help make yourinformation accessible to all.
The Directory will be available in print and on CD-Rom. It willinitially be published alongside the Standards but will be updated on amore frequent basis.
It's a first attempt at listing what's available in Scotland and wehope to update it on a regular basis.
We're sure that more organisations produce information in alternativeformats or can offer facilities to allow others to do so.
SAIF was asked to organise a meeting to bring together nationalorganisations who are involved in providing information and advice todisabled people and carers.
We held a meeting on the 8th March 1999 in Glasgow City Chambers towhich we invited 40 organisations. The majority of these attended, sendingone or two representatives along.
The meeting focused on the launch of Update and how informationproviders can work together to ensure that the information and advice theygive to the public is appropriate, up to date and accurate.
The people who attended the meeting agreed that it was useful to meetwith each other and discuss common issues and suggest ways to increaseco-operation and co-ordination.
More communication between agencies will make referral and signpostingeasier for staff, and getting the right information and advice less timeconsuming and frustrating for disabled people themselves.
SAIF agreed to organise further meetings to tie-in with the launch ofUpdate and the SAIF Standards in late 1999/early 2000.
Watch this space for details.
One of the key recommendations in Enabling Information (1995) was thatlocal authorities should set up local information strategies to improve theco-ordination of information and advice provision to disabled people andcarers in their areas.
SAIF has been working with COSLA, the Scottish Local GovernmentInformation Unit and individual local authorities throughout the country totry to help local authorities put these strategies into place.
In September 1998 we held the very successful Right to Know conferencefocusing on accessible information and aimed at local authority staff andelected members.
SAIF believes that the cornerstones of a local accessible informationstrategy should be:
We are now working with our partners in local government to produceguidelines including the experiences of a variety of localities wherestrategies are currently being established or implemented.
SAIF has an IT Working Group that develops our Website and identifiesother projects which are primarily about increasing disabled peoples accessto electronic communication.
SAIF works with the Making Connections Unit (MCU) at GlasgowCaledonian University. MCU is all about making the Web inclusive for alldisabled people.
Contact Jim Byrne, MCU Project Officer, at:
Making Connections Project
Glasgow Caledonian University
70 Cowcaddens Road,
Glasgow, G4 0BA
tel: 0141 331 3893
email: Web: http://www.connections.gcal.ac.uk/
com.com/holyrood is an new Millennium project thatwill use the latest technology to enable communities across Scotland tocommunicate with their new parliament at Holyrood.
In a series of events throughout the year 2000, groups across Scotlandwill have the opportunity to interact with Holyrood across the Internetfrom their own village hall or community centre.
com.com/holyrood will:
For an application pack or to be added to the project mailing listwrite to:
FREEPOST
com.com/holyrood
SCVO
18/19 Claremont Crescent
Edinburgh
EH7 0LQ
Tel: 0131 556 3882
Fax: 0131 556 0279
Email:
The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) has just produced a new video called Websites That Work! The15 minute video shows website designers that accessible website design iseasy to implement and of huge benefit to disabled Internet users.
The WAI, in co-ordination with organisations around the world, ispursuing accessibility of the Web through five primary areas of work:
Visit their Website for more information: www.w3.org/WAI
A new information resource is available from RNIBincluding information on the following:
You can view the site at: www.tiresias.org
The Scottish Accessible Information Forum (SAIF) is currentlyrecruiting new members. SAIF is an advisory group promoting accessibleinformation provision for disabled people and their carers throughoutScotland.
SAIF was established in October 1996 to take forward therecommendations in a report called Enabling Information. SAIF is managed bythe Scottish Consumer Council and is funded by the Community Care Divisionof the Scottish Executive Health Department.
As a group dealing with issues affecting disabled people and their carers, it is a priority that the majority ofmembers have direct experience of disability. We therefore stronglyencourage the participation of disabled people. To support this, we provideall our material in members preferred format, organise any aids/adaptations for meetings and will pay members andtheir personal assistants expenses for travel and accommodation whenrequired.
For more details and an application form please contact us at theaddress on the back of the newsletter. Remember to let us know which formatyou would prefer.
The closing date is 17th December 1999
In April 2000 the National Information Forum will present its fifthannual awards.
The Forum invites you to nominate any person or organisation who hasdevised innovative, effective, appropriate or exciting ways of providinginformation to disabled people.
In addition we will be presenting special millenium awards to"information pioneers of the century", who have made seminal developmentsin creating information services for disabled people. Nominations areinvited.
Closing date 11th January 2000.
Contact NIF for details and a nomination form.
National Information Forum
Post Point 10/11, BT Burne House
Bell Street, London NW1 5BZ
Tel: 020 7402
Fax: 020 7402 1259
Web: www.nif.org.uk
The Scottish Accessible Information Forum (SAIF) was set up to takeforward the recommendations made by the Scottish Working Group onInformation Services for People with Disabilities and Carers in its finalreport, Enabling Information (1995).
SAIF aims to make information and advice more accessible to disabledpeople and carers. SAIF is made up of 21 people representing providers ofinformation and advice as well as organisations of and for disabled people and carers, and issupported by two part-time project workers with administrative support.
For further information on anything contained in this newsletterplease contact us at the address below.
Remember, all SAIF material is available in Braille, larger print, ontape or disk. Just let us know what format you would prefer.
If you are involved in information provision and are doing somethingyou think is worth sharing, or are looking for advice or practicalassistance or simply want to declare your existence then SAIF staff will beglad to hear from you.
by post
Scottish Accessible Information Forum
c/o Scottish Consumer Council
Royal Exchange House
100 Queen Street
Glasgow G1 3DN
by phone
0141 226 5261 (voice)
0141 226 8459 (text)
by fax
0141 221 0731
by email
by internet
www.connections.gcal.ac.uk/saif/
Phone: 0141 226 5261 (voice), 0141 226 8459 (text), fax: 0141 221 0731
e-mail: Steve Harvey ( ) or Sarah Smith ( )
This page was last modified on Fri, Dec 1, 2000 at 3:18:59 pm. An accessible web site created by , made possible by the Making Connections Unit