Disability Rights UK is among a group of disability and accessibility organisations who have written a letter to NHS England to express disappointment at the lack of progress in reviewing the legally-binding Accessible Information Standard ( AIS ).
The Standard aims to make sure that people who have a disability, impairment or sensory loss get information that they can access and understand and any communication support that they need from health and social care providers. The Standard is legally binding and tells organisations how to ensure that patients, service users, their carers and parents can access and understand the information they are given. This includes making sure that people get information in accessible formats.
With little progress being made, DRUK have written publicly to NHS England, calling on them to publish the review of the AIS and clarify how they will take forward its recommendations.
The letter is also signed by Healthwatch England, Mencap, Learning Disability England, National Voices, SignHealth, SeeAbility, Thomas Pocklington Trust
“Millions of people continue to experience barriers to accessing health and social care because they do not receive the communication support they need – people whose health and wellbeing have been put at direct risk from not receiving information in a way they could understand and even where services have good processes in place for identifying people’s support needs, these are not consistently met.”
You can read the full letter here on the Healtwatch website.
