Accessibility recommendations
During the investigation we came to a number of conclusions about how easy it is to access our services which you can read in the investigation findings report. Based on these conclusions we have drafted 9 recommendations of how we can fix the issues uncovered in the investigation. These are:
Recommendation 1: Raise awareness of the facilities available for disabled customers and improve information
Recommendation 2: Reintroduce the text relay service and improve access for customers who are Deaf, have hearing loss or other communication / speech difficulties
Recommendation 3: Provide access to a video / telephone translation service (for BSL and other languages)
Recommendation 4: Improve staff training on disability and accessibility issues
Recommendation 5: Use the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officer Group to identify improvements to services
Recommendation 6: Improve the Hartlepool.gov.uk website to make it more accessible and easier to use
Recommendation 7: Ensure that Council reports, documents and forms are accessible and easy to read / use
Recommendation 8: Do a consultation to find out if the creation of a passport / card / lanyard system could be useful for customers to show to staff so that their needs are quickly recognised and responded to any additional support needs.
Recommendation 9: Share the lessons learned from the development of the Highlight leisure centre across all services
The closing date for comments on the recommendations is Sunday 27th August.