Campaign to improve accessible information about healthcare continues
The Accessible Information Standard (AIS) aims to make sure that everyone, especially people who have sensory impairments or learning disabilities, has access to healthcare information in the way that they need it.
The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) recently launched its 'My Info My Way' campaign to help make accessible health and care information a reality. Their new campaign emphasises why this is so important, and it explains how you can request information in your required format.
In recent years, our Healthwatch has repeatedly called for the Accessible Information Standard (AIS) to be implemented consistently. We know from the feedback we hear, particularly though our Sensory Impairment Partnership Board, that people are still struggling to get information in the way that works for them.
A key finding of our recent ‘Tackling Health Inequalities’ report was that people are often unable to find information about local services in a format they can use. And our 2020 report ‘Giving GP websites a check-up’ found that, at the time, 2 in 3 GP websites did not have good examples of accessible information for patients with sensory loss or learning disabilities.
In addition, our Learning Disability Partnership Board has regularly raised the issue of how people with learning disabilities need to receive letters in Easy Read format.
On a positive note, Healthwatch Cambridgeshire and Peterborough have been speaking to our local Trusts about their approach to implementing the standard and improvements have been made.
