Barrier free information
How to develop your local accessible information strategy. A practical guide for local authorities and others.
Foreword
Information is not a luxury. It is an essential tool in all our lives and there should be no barriers preventing us from getting the information or advice we need. It is vital that information is accessible, relevant and accurate. This is no less true for disabled people and carers than it is for anyone else.
With the implementation of the Disability Discrimination Act and the establishment of the Disability Rights Commission, the legislative framework is beginning to encourage greater accessibility. Therefore, it is important that you develop a strategy for the provision of accessible, relevant and accurate user information.
The aim of this guide is to help local authorities and the agencies they work with improve the accessibility of the information and advice that is given to disabled people and their carers in their local area. It highlights what you can do to make a real difference to the quality of information and advice that local people get and it gives guidance on how to produce a local accessible information strategy.
Information also has a cost, both in staff time and money and needs to be managed like any other resource. Developing a local framework within which accessible information provision can be planned and developed will help ensure that the most effective use is made of limited resources.
I hope that this guide will help you build on the good practice that already exists in many areas and to continue to develop their information and advice provision in line with the needs of local people.
Dorothy Granger
Chair
SAIF Local Strategies Working Group
Introduction
This guide is designed to help you and the agencies you work with improve the delivery of information to disabled people.
It recommends a step-by-step process for you to follow so that information services in your area are co-ordinated, accessible and easy for members of the public to use. Everything in the guide has been checked by disabled people.
The guide explains why things need to change and offers straightforward ideas and suggestions to help you make the changes.
We know that disabled people face many difficulties getting information. We hope that this guide makes the process easier for all those involved, and opens up channels of communication to share information and good practice with other people from all over Scotland who are trying to achieve the same results.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the members of SAIF’s Local Accessible Information Strategies Working Group:
Ben Forsyth
Dorothy Granger (Chair)
Margaret Hurcombe
Linda Kerr
Linda Miller
We are very grateful to all the people in local authorities and health boards who have responded to our enquiries with contact names, completed questionnaires and examples of good practice. We hope that this guide helps you promote the needs of disabled people locally and we loo