Deaf people and the Accessible Information Standard - how well are local organisations doing?

Healthwatch Wokingham gave a grant to Deaf Positives to conduct research on compliance with the Accessible Inforrmation Standard.  Deaf Positives undertook a mystery ship of 34 diffferent health and social care services, an online survey to which 11 deaf people responded and a focus group with three deaf service users.

The findings showed that the extent to which local health and care organisations are complying with the Accessible Information Standard in relation to Deaf people is significantly limited. Most staff were friendly and welcoming towards the Deaf mystery shoppers. Yet organisations in general seemed ill-equipped to meet their information and communication needs.

Most organisations surveyed offered no communication support (e.g. providing interpreter at appointments) for Deaf people.

Many organisations/staff, even those who were friendly and well-intentioned, showed poor awareness of:

• appropriate ways to support communication between Deaf and hearing people
• what is not appropriate
• their legal responsibilities in relation to information & communication under the Accessible Information Standard.

The Deaf mystery shoppers endured examples of offputting obstacles likely to deter Deaf people from trying to access care: being asked or expected to communicate by phone; delays and difficulty in getting served in person; and the impact of their basic requirements being labelled as 'too expensive' or exceptional.

None of the organisations used British Sign Language (BSL) on their websites or TV screens - there was no 'in-vision' signing for people whose first language is BSL.

There was not enough visual information on display in local health and care venues:

• very few waiting areas provided a visual alert identifying the next person to be seen
• no signs about communication support (e.g. interpreter booking)
• not all venues had television screens
• not all television screens had subtitles

Deaf Positives Action also used an online questionnaire to obtain feedback from Deaf patients and service users. Their feedback confirmed the lack of communication support and also highlighted issues about the quality/suitability of commmunication support where it had been provided. There was clear support for awareness training across all services.

The report contains six recommendations about training, record keeping, improving practices, providing communication support and empowering the service user.