VisitEngland and VisitScotland know that reducing language barriers is as important as reducing physical barriers. Inklecomms ensured that language was accessible for their new accessibility guides. This was an exciting and technically challenging project, because the language was automatically generated from online questionnaires.
There’s confusion about what a format is, in accessible information. On close scrutiny ‘format’ is used to mean physical appearance, and how information is stored. ‘Accessible format’ is a phrase that we should use with care, because its meaning is inconsistent and sometimes ambiguous.
A quick summary of the Accessible Information Standard, improving the rights of patients and service users who have an information and communication need. Includes aims of the Standard, 5 steps to accessibility, information and communication needs, exclusions and standard documents, plus the ethical and business case for accessibility.
Search Engine Optimisation helps people find you online. But what’s the point of making your information easy to find, if it’s too difficult to understand? Sense Making Optimisation is as important as SEO, ensuring information is easier to understand and use.
The Accessible Information Ladder is an evidence based resource to assist in identifying and meeting your customers’ accessible information needs. The Accessible Information Ladder helps you research, plan, create and test your accessible information, and ensure none of your customers’ accessible information needs are overlooked.
Need help with a project? Drop us a line and we will get back to you soon.
Keep up to date with the latest news from Inklecomms on accessible information, industry leading techniques and how best to communicate with your wider audience in the most effective way.
Department of Work and Pensions
Inklecomms was asked by the DWP to provide advice and adaptations to ensure letters to claimants regarding Employment and Support Allowance, and Jobseekers’ Allowance, were easier to understand.
Claimant representatives were engaged in content creation and feedback.
Working with users and other stakeholders, Inklecomms improved the content, flow, relevance and clarity of standard letters, using Easier English.
Inklecomms also provided an accessibility audit for a proposed Easy Read leaflet. The audit included analysis and recommendations on intended audience and writing style, including text structure, expository features, language and illustrations.
This work contributed to a review of information products, following recommendations by the independent Work Capability Assessment and Oakley reviews.
Northern Neurological Alliance
A questionnaire to measure outcomes, for people with acquired neurological conditions, was adapted using Easier English. Adaptations aimed to improve ease of use and validity of responses.
Advice was provided on further, staged simplifications of the questionnaire, so that it could be adapted to meet the needs of people with progressive conditions.
VisitEngland and VisitScotland
Inklecomms provided language consultation for VisitEngland and VisitScotland’s new Accessibility Guides website, enabling tourism operators to produce accessibility guides for visitors with disabilities.
The main focus of the work was to construct questions, and multiple-choice answers, that would automatically generate readable, relevant, public-facing, online information.
The final website was simpler and more standardised than the previous format. User testing showed the site is easier for businesses to complete, and easier for people with accessibility needs to use.
‘These new guides will give clear accessibility information to make it easier for disabled visitors to plan their trips with confidence.’
John Glen, UK Government
‘The new accessibility guides will allow travellers to compare attractions and accommodation before choosing their destination, enabling them to make an informed choice.’
Sally Balcombe, VisitEngland Chief Executive
Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
Inklecomms provided advice and training, to combine a complaints leaflet, and its Easy Read equivalent, into one standard document.
Adaptations using Easier English improved understanding, and ease of use, for patients and carers with diverse language, literacy and knowledge needs.