Accessible Information: Implementation Guidance
Publication 03 July 2015
Updated August 2017
The Accessible Information Standard directs and defines a specific, consistent approach to identifying, recording, flagging, sharing and meeting the information and communication support needs of patients, service users, carers and parents, where those needs relate to a disability, impairment or sensory loss.
It is of particular relevance to individuals who are blind, d/Deaf, deaf blind and / or who have a learning disability, although it will support anyone with information or communication needs relating to a disability, impairment or sensory loss, for example people who have aphasia or a mental health condition which affects their ability to communicate.
The Standard applies to service providers across the NHS and adult social care system, and it specifically aims to improve the quality and safety of care received by individuals with information and communication needs, and their ability to be involved in autonomous decision-making about their health, care and wellbeing.
Commissioners of NHS and publicly-funded adult social care must also have regard to this Standard, in so much as they must ensure that contracts, frameworks and performance-management arrangements with provider bodies enable and promote the Standard’s requirements.