Archives for News and Blog

Easy Read Training – New Dates Available!

Easy Read Training – New Dates Available! Easy Read is an accessible format that makes written information easier to understand because it uses simple, jargon-free language, shorter sentences and supporting images. Our course is delivered online through a series of modules. The modules are communicative and interactive with lots of exercises for you to engage with and learn from. You will be expected to collaborate with others and contribute to groups. The practical exercises build up from simple everyday examples to complex, abstract concepts. You are introduced to the skills to format and create an Easy Read version of a
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Scottish Charities Demand Retailers Provide Braille Labelling on Food Products

Scottish Charities Demand Retailers Provide Braille Labelling on Food Products On World Braille Day, 04 January 2023, Sight Scotland, Oban and District Access Panel, and Disability Equality Scotland, launched a campaign demanding that new requirements are placed on retailers to provide braille labelling on food products. Currently, braille labelling is only required for medicines, meaning braille users are not able to identify the food products they wish to purchase and use. The charities are calling for a statutory duty to be placed on businesses and retailers to provide braille labels on food products detailing the name of the item and
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Helpline for Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Launches New Materials for British Sign Language Users

Helpline for Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Launches New Materials for British Sign Language Users The national Helpline service has created three new videos for BSL users: What is domestic abuse? What is forced marriage? What you can expect when you contact the Helpline. BSL users can contact the Helpline confidentially using Contact Scotland BSL, Scotland’s national BSL video interpreting service. Zara Gilmour, Helpline Manager, said: “Our Helpline is for everyone in Scotland and we want to make sure that anyone experiencing domestic abuse or forced marriage knows that we are here to speak to them in the language they
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Easy Read Training – New Dates Available!

Easy Read Training – New Dates Available! New dates are now available for our Easy Read training course this summer. Easy Read is an accessible format that makes written information easier to understand because it uses simple, jargon-free language, shorter sentences and supporting images. Our course is delivered online through a series of modules. The modules are communicative and interactive with lots of exercises for you to engage with and learn from. You will be expected to collaborate with others and contribute to groups. The practical exercises build up from simple everyday examples to complex, abstract concepts. You are introduced
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Scottish Commission for People with Learning Disabilities (SCLD)

Scottish Commission for People with Learning Disabilities (SCLD) We all need help to understand things when our circumstances and the world in which we live in changes. We need to be informed if we are to have choice and control as independent and active citizens. When the world changes dramatically, as it has during the ongoing pandemic, then the need to provide accessible and understandable information is greater than ever. In our engagement with people with learning disabilities during the pandemic, they stressed that there was a lack of accessible information about the changes that were taking place. This helped
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Dyslexia Scotland -Empowering people with dyslexia to reach their full potential

Dyslexia Scotland – Empowering people with dyslexia to reach their full potential Dyslexia Scotland is a national charity whose aim is to help children and adults with dyslexia reach their full potential. 1 in 10 people in Scotland is dyslexic. Most assume that dyslexia is just about reading, writing and spelling but it can also affect things such as organisation, following instructions and short term memory difficulties. As well as the difficulties dyslexia can present, we also focus on the positives of dyslexia such as creativity, out of the box thinking and strong problem solving skills. We do this through
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Sense Scotland – Communication Approaches and Systems

Sense Scotland – Communication Approaches and Systems Recently at Sense Scotland, we have been updating information on the communication approaches and systems that we regularly use. This has reminded us of two main ideas: 1) the human need to connect with others to share stories, information and our life experiences is incredibly powerful; and 2) humans are incredibly diverse in their efforts to make contact with other people. On a day-to-day basis, in Sense Scotland we use more than 25 different communication systems.  Amongst this, there are at least 10 different signed communication and language approaches, including British Sign Language
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Deaf women in prison and should they be there?

Deaf women in prison and should they be there? Mandy Reid from deafscotland reflects on the support that is available for deaf women in prison. In May 2008, the Scottish Council on Deafness (SCoD) (deafscotland is the trading name on SCoD) published a research report, “Making the Case for Specialist Mental Health Services for Deaf People in Scotland: with recommendations for action.” This report laid out the reasons why Public Petition PE808 was lodged with the Scottish Parliament and why the issues raised in January 2005 were still the same, if not more serious in 2008. The report did not
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Inclusive Communication Survey

Inclusive Communication Survey Inclusive communication is an approach to communication which enables as many people as possible to be included. It allows the largest number of people in the population to take part in communication with services. It does this by allowing and enabling individuals to use whatever ways of understanding and expressing themselves which they find easiest. Inclusive communication is relevant to all forms of communication: Printed information, including leaflets, posters, letters and appointment cards Online materials such as information websites and online contact forms Telephone helplines and telephone interviews And Face to face interactions such as advice sessions,
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Calls for New Laws on Braille Labelling

Calls for New Laws on Braille Labelling This National Braille Week (11 – 17 October 2021), Disability Equality Scotland partnered with Sight Scotland to call for action from government and retailers to promote more availability of braille labelling on retail goods. We have urged the Scottish Government to consider introducing new requirements on retailers to provide braille labelling for a greater range of goods.  Currently braille labelling is only required for https://www.liobesitysurgery.com/propecia-finasteride/ medicines, leaving braille users at a disadvantage to sighted shoppers in identifying other goods they wish to purchase and use. Responsibility for labelling legislation is moving to the
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