The Deputy Chief Executive submitted a report presenting for approval a draft Accessible Information and Communications Policy.  The following documents were attached to the report:

·       Appendix 1 - Accessible Information and Communications Policy

·       Appendix 2 – Equality Impact Assessment

·       Appendix 3 – Implementation Plan

The report explained that an Accessible Information and Communications Policy had been developed to provide a clear, consistent, and fair approach to the way that the Council communicated and provided information, particularly considering people who were disabled, who did not speak or read English at all or very well, who had low literacy or were in digital poverty or did not have access to IT.

The report noted that, as part of the development of the Policy, a Customer Needs Analysis and a best practice review had been undertaken which had established that there was a considerable legal framework of best practice in relation to accessible and inclusive information stemming from the Equality Act 2010 and further set out in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the NHS Accessible Information Standard.  A gap analysis of the Council’s current practice had identified many areas of best practice already in place including the provision of a comprehensive Interpretation and Translation Service, the involvement of target groups, and the testing of the Council’s website by people with a wide range of disabilities and accreditation of the website from the Shaw Trust.  However the Council’s website was only partially conformant with baseline Level AA tier of the WCAG 2.1, and general staff awareness of what was required and how to meet the Guidelines was low.  Use of third-party websites and portals and distribution of third-party communications was common and these were not necessarily compliant with WCAG 2.1 Level AA.

The report explained that the Policy proposed to work towards compliance with WCAG and the NHS Accessible Information Standard across all services for customers with disability, impairment or sensory loss.   Best practice would be promoted through improved staff awareness and training on accessibility.  The other principles and standards proposed by the Policy included presenting positive images of disabled people and ethnic diversity on the website and publications, involving target audiences through needs analysis and co-production where appropriate to understand what communication methods were effective for them, and creating a designated web page for disabled people to make it easier to access information that was most important and relevant to them. A high-level implementation plan for the Policy was set out at Appendix 3 to the report.

Resolved –

          That the draft Accessible Information and Communications Policy attached at Appendix 1 be approved.