
People have the right to accessible information and support with communication. Health and social care services must provide this support. This means these organisations must follow the Accessible Information Standard for the NHS.
The aim of the accessible information standard is to help people with a disability, an impairment, or a sensory loss. It supports patients, carers, and parents. The standard aims to ensure people’s communication needs are known and met.
The standard says that organisations that give NHS care or adult social care must do the following.
Services should ask people if they need help with communication. For example, people could say they need:
The Trust aims that people can:
Around 1 in 5 people in the UK has a disability. Making information accessible is not just good practice; it is the law. Trust services must be accessible to everyone who needs them. This should help to improve people’s health and wellbeing. It should also help to reduce health inequalities.
The Cornwall accessible communications group is a multi-agency group. The group was set up to improve all forms of communication.
The group will:
All partners of the Cornwall accessible communications group are committed to:
The Cornwall accessible communications group developed an accessible communications symbol. The symbol is a picture, which shows examples of formats available. This includes audio files, Braille, and foreign languages.
We hope more organisations will use the symbol. This will make it easy to recognise for anyone with a communication need.
The symbol is available in different picture formats. Email NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board's engagement team.
The accessibility requirements aim to make online public services accessible to everyone. The regulations aim to improve digital accessibility. We have worked to make our site as accessible as possible for all visitors.
Read more about our accessibility statement and accessibility options.