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What is digital accessibility? Digital accessibility is all about making sure online content is accessible to people with different needs. Our digital landscape evolves at a rapid pace, with the emergence of new technologies every day - and with this growth, the accessibility of all things digital is a pressing concern. Without proper attention, organisations run the risk of creating a space that can actively alienate people with learning disabilities, but this time online. Digital accessibility is about: Breaking down barriers. Ensuring people of all abilities can harness the power of the internet. Empowering people of all abilities to access the online information and services that are relevant to them. How organisations can be digitally accessible If organisations are aiming to improve the accessibility of their online content, a great start is looking at and understanding the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), these guidelines offer a framework for creating accessible online content. Organisations can ensure their online content is accessible by adhering to these guidelines. But digital accessibility is more than just rule compliance. It is about understanding the daily challenges faced by people with disabilities and considering their needs from the outset. Organisations may find it useful to include people with disabilities when they are designing and planning online content, using user tester groups to check that their online content is accessible. How is Easy Read Online digitally accessible? We must practice what we preach! This is how we at Easy Read Online strive to be digitally accessible: Giving our clients the option of a WCAG 2.2 compliant version of their commissioned Easy Read document. Offering interactive versions of forms and surveys that can be filled in online. Championing accessible online content by incorporating descriptive links, form accessibility, reduced mouse interaction, responsive design and clear fonts into our website. Including alt text on any images that are used on our website and accompany our social media posts. Regularly reviewing, maintaining and improving the accessibility of our online content. To find out more about digital accessibility, you can read about and take part in Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD): https://accessibility.day/

Welcome to the April 2025 edition of the Easy Read Online newsletter! We hope you’ve been enjoying the sunshine as much as we have. This month, we’ve been proud to translate some powerful and important documents, resources that we believe can help to raise awareness and support the rights of disabled people. Working with Amnesty International We were proud to work with Amnesty International - the world’s largest grassroots human rights organisation - on translating their ‘Social Insecurity Report’ into Easy Read. This report is a deep dive into how the UK government is currently managing social security and how it interprets human rights laws set out by the United Nations. Social security is vital for many disabled people, helping cover the basic costs of living. When social security is insecure or inadequate, it hits disabled people the hardest. In their report, Amnesty International offers strong recommendations for improving the social security system, most importantly, by recognising social security as a human right. Translating this report into Easy Read can lead to more people understanding and engaging with the policies and decisions that directly affect them, instead of being spoken about by others. The report is based on responses to a national survey, and one of our technical writers did an excellent job turning those voices into clear, emotional, and accessible writing. You can read the Easy Read version of the report here: Social Insecurity Report Easy Read Working with Activity Alliance Similarly, in October 2024, our long-time client Activity Alliance ran a survey asking young disabled people about their experiences with local sports and physical activity. The findings are now published in a report titled ‘A Game of Inequality: The Reality of Sporting Dreams for Young Disabled People’, which they then commissioned us to translate into Easy Read. We’re always proud to support projects that amplify the voices of young disabled people, and it’s fantastic to see Activity Alliance continuing to prioritise accessibility by sharing Easy Read versions of their work. It’s a clear reflection of their commitment to inclusion. One of our technical writers expertly translated complex statistics from survey findings into clear, easy-to-understand statements, maintaining accuracy while making the content more accessible for a wider audience. If you want to find out more about Easy Read, and what makes the language we use ‘easy to read’, you can check out our website: Easy Read Online - Homepage A new language translation Did you know we also help our clients translate Easy Read documents into different languages? Our process starts with creating the Easy Read version in English. From there, we translate the Easy Read text into the requested language, then format it to match the original Easy Read layout before delivering the final version to the client. This approach has proven successful time and again, and we’ve helped translate Easy Read documents into a wide range of languages, including Polish, Farsi, Punjabi, and many more. This April, we were excited to support a translation in a new language! In 2024, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, Heba Hagrass, visited Kyrgyzstan to assess the country's progress in putting the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into action, since it was agreed to in 2019. After her visit, a detailed report was produced, which we translated into Easy Read and then into Russian. Our commitment to improvement If you are familiar with our newsletter or our ethos at Easy Read Online, you will know that continuous improvement is at the heart of everything we do. We are always evolving our Easy Read work to better meet the needs of our end users and to give our clients confidence that the accessible information they share is truly fit for purpose. Our latest step forward came this April: we launched a brand new user feedback survey specifically for Easy Read end users. A link to the survey now appears at the beginning of our Easy Read documents, giving readers the opportunity to tell us what they think of our Easy Read. We are excited about the potential of this new feature - it allows us to hear from people we haven’t yet had the chance to co-produce with, and we hope it will lead to even more meaningful improvements in the future. Best wishes from the Easy Read Online team.

Welcome to our spring newsletter. We hope you’re enjoying the sunnier days and lighter evenings as much as us! Remember, Easy Read Online can help if you need: Easy Read translations. Plain English translations. Original documents to be made compliant with web accessibility standards. Easy Read documents that you’d like to be checked by people with lived experience. Other accessibility features or formats. Here are some of the things we’ve been up to recently. Easy Read Online quarterly training day Our team met up in Liverpool last Friday to take part in our quarterly training day. This was a chance for the team to catch up and share knowledge about the recent improvements we have made to our working practices. This included some training for the whole team on creating Plain Language documents. Plain Language is putting technical text in ‘layman's terms’ which should be able to be read and understood by everybody. We have recently started to offer this service to clients alongside Easy Read. Click here to get a quote for Plain English translation. We hold our training days on Fridays, when we are usually not working due to our 4 day week. This means there is no impact on turnaround times for clients. Contributing to the Disability Business Forum We spoke to around 75 participants at the recent Business Disability Forum about Easy Read. We shared more information about what Easy Read is, who it’s for and the process of translating complex information into Easy Read. The Business Disability Forum is a membership organisation which works with businesses to remove barriers to inclusion for disabled people. New illustrations! Our trademark illustrations make Easy Read Online documents stand out. The illustrations are based on real-world images, so are more relatable and useful to the end user. We work with people with learning disabilities to check the illustrations and have had really positive feedback. All of our images are created by our brilliant in-house illustrator Danni! Recently she’s been working on some new illustrations for specific documents, such as an illustration of a blood transfusion and chest pain. Spotlight project - Easy Read policies for the NHS We recently created some Easy Read translations for an NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB).  The documents were policies for paying people with learning disabilities for their work to co-produce services. The policies outline how the ICB recognises people with lived experience and how much they should be paid. This is a great example of why Easy Read is so vital. Providing these policies in Easy Read will enable the co-producers to understand their rights and be able to advocate for themselves. That’s all from us for this month. We hope you have a great month ahead and enjoy all of the upcoming Easter bank holidays! Best wishes from the Easy Read Online team.

This week is National Hate Crime Awareness Week. Many councils and organisations will write: ⏺ Reports about what they are doing to tackle Hate Crime. ⏺ Strategies that set out their plans to stop Hate Crime. ⏺ Leaflets and information to raise awareness of Hate Crime; and signpost victims to get the right support. If your organisation is providing information related to Hate Crime, have you considered producing versions in Easy Read? Easy Read will make the information easier to understand and more accessible to people with leaning disabilities and others who have difficulty with standard information. Hertfordshire County Council have published some Easy Read information about Hate Crime on their website: #NationalHCAW #HateCrime #HateCrimes #EasyRead #LearningDisabilities

Happy Halloween from the Easy Read Online team! Here’s a roundup of all the work we’ve done in the last month… Awareness in October October saw many impactful awareness events and global campaigns, all united in their mission to speak up on important issues. Notable for Easy Read Online was #WorldMentalHealthDay, which we actively express our solidarity with. We believe equal access to information plays a pivotal role in connecting people with disabilities with the vital support needed to improve their mental health. Our Easy Read translation of many documents related to mental health services enables people with learning disabilities to find and understand the help they need. Spotlight Projects UN Disability Inclusion Strategy Report In 2019, the United Nations shared its Disability Inclusion Strategy - a policy and accountability framework that details how the UN will include people with disabilities in its workforce and all pillars of its work. In October, we were delighted to translate the annual strategy report into Easy Read for the 4th time. The Easy Read report is an effective way of accessibly sharing progress, holding true to the values of the strategy. You can check out the report here: Ofsted Report In October we also produced an important Easy Read report for Ofsted which outlines the key results from their consultation with children in social care. The report highlights a significant improvement in the safety of children and young people in their social care environment, including those with extra educational needs. You can read the report here: The I Need Easy Read Campaign The "I Need Easy Read Campaign" group recently had a productive meeting with our co-producers at Mencap, who gave us feedback on our campaign website - which we promptly actioned! As a result, our website has undergone some accessibility changes and is now even available in the Welsh language. You can explore these updates on our campaign website: Following a positive reception from the public when sharing our "I Need Easy Read" leaflets, our campaign's next steps include widening our outreach and exploring new ways of raising campaign awareness, such as working with local radio stations. Easy Read Development We enthusiastically welcomed Karen White as an Easy Read technical writer to our team this month. Karen has fast become an invaluable member of the group, bringing fresh ideas and new outlooks which are already filtering into our work processes and improving them. On Wednesday 8th November we will be closed for a team training day. We will be looking at potential improvements to our Easy Read work, such as reviewing and critiquing our document design. We will also assess our internal work systems, which will involve an ‘Overcoming Obstacles’ workshop and an evaluation of our company values. Thank you That’s all from us for this month. We wish you a good November! If you would like us to produce Easy Read for your organisation you can request a quote for information here:

Hello from the Easy Read Online team! We hope you are well and getting ready for the festive break! Here’s the last update from us at Easy Read Online for 2023. Some highlight projects we have worked on this year Rail ticket office consultation In the summer, we were able to support the work of several rail companies as they consulted on changes to ticket offices in England. This included quickly turning around key consultation documents which enabled more people to fully engage with the consultation. We then supported Transport Focus with an Easy Read version of their report on the consultation and outcomes. You can read the report here: United Nations disability inclusion strategy progress report This strategy aims to make sure disabled people are fully included in the work of the UN and provide an example for member nations. We were delighted to support the UN’s work on this important strategy. You can see the Easy Read report here: NHS England We have supported NHS England with many documents this year relating to their merger, and helping members of their staff to navigate the changes. This is part of our ongoing contract with NHS England. Feedback from clients UN Disability Inclusion Strategy Report We are always pleased to hear from clients about how we have supported them in creating accessible information (And how we could do better!). We were really pleased to hear this positive feedback from officers at Bristol City Council: Feedback on our work from people with learning disabilities A group of people with learning disabilities at Mencap Liverpool and Sefton regularly review examples of our work to check that the documents are clear and accessible to them. This is a key part of creating high-quality Easy Read documents. We also meet with the group regularly to discuss accessible information and best practices. Here is some of the feedback we’ve received this year: “Really clear and informative document that enabled the group to have a good discussion around health inequalities.” “Everyone found the document interesting and really liked how the original quotes were kept in as it made it feel more authentic and that they were getting a real point of view, the trickier words in bold with explanations underneath were very helpful too. Overall, a really good clear document!” “Overall - Simple. clear pictures that stand out, bullet points used well.” “We liked the use of bold writing and not too much text in one place.” “There was a lot of information in this document but it was broken down well and made manageable for everyone to understand.” We have also made some changes to our documents based on their feedback over the year, including: Adding text captions to icons to make them clearer in images. Adding a page at the start of documents which explains what Easy Read is and the features they will encounter. A big thank you to the coordinators and members at Mencap Liverpool and Sefton for their continued help! Welcome to the newest member of our team A warm welcome to Presley who recently joined the team as our web-accessibility support. He has been helping to prepare and remediate PDFs to make them accessible and compliant with the WCAG 2.1 web accessibility standard. Office shut down A quick reminder that our office will be closed for the festive period from 5pm on Wednesday 20th December until 9am on Wednesday 3rd January. Thank you That’s all from us for this year. Thank you to all of the clients we have worked with, it’s been a pleasure to support your work in creating accessible information. We hope you have a restful break and wish you the best for 2024! As ever, if you need to request a quote for information in Easy Read, you can use our online form: Best wishes The Easy Read Online team

Happy Easter from the Easy Read Online team! Welcome to this month’s update. March’s Highlight Easy Read Projects We have been working on some incredibly important criminal justice documents this month for: All of the documents feature crucial information, and people with learning disabilities must also be afforded the opportunity to read, understand and interact with this information. It would be great to see more government departments offering Easy Read versions of their information! A Naidex Day Out On the 21st the whole Easy Read Online team went to this year's Naidex exhibition at the NEC Birmingham! The day was filled with inspirational talks, innovative products and fun activities. We came away from the exhibition even more committed to, and enthusiastic about, accessibility. A personal favourite amongst our team members was a very special LIVE recording of the fantastic People First Podcast - featuring special guest Brooke Millhouse. Are you an arts organisation? Are you part of an arts organisation that is based in the West Midlands? The West Midlands Combined Authority is offering grants to arts organisations that are currently working on an arts project with a group in another country. We have created some handy Easy Read information about these grants, which you can find on their website! Wrap Up That’s all from us this month - a big thanks to all the clients we have worked with, we have thoroughly enjoyed supporting you to create accessible information. If you would like to request a quote for information in Easy Read, you can use our online form: Best wishes, The Easy Read Online team.

You can see Easy Read information about the Learning Disability Register from Mencap here:   The Learning Disability Register is a list of people who have learning disabilities. It is kept locally, by individual GP practices. The NHS requires every GP practice to keep a list of their patients who have a learning disability - and this is the Learning Disability Register. People with learning disabilities are more likely to face health inequalities, including having poorer physical and mental health than people without a learning disability. A lack of access to the right knowledge, care and support leads to people with a learning disability generally living shorter lives than the average population and having inadequate support from health and care services. One way that the NHS tries to tackle this is by offering an annual health check to everyone over the age of 14 who is on the Learning Disability Register. This helps to find out any problems that someone might have early on, so they can be treated. It also provides a chance for the doctor to understand any adjustments that the patient might need. A health action plan can be requested at an annual health check, which will advise about how someone can live more healthily. It can also include ways that the doctor’s surgery will support someone to be fully involved in their healthcare. The GP surgery is required to make reasonable adjustments to support people on the Learning Disability Register. This might be a quieter place to wait for an appointment at the surgery, or having appointments at certain times of day. Getting health information in Easy Read is another reasonable adjustment that can be requested. Another benefit of being on the Learning Disability Register is that you will be contacted for any vaccinations that you might need, like getting the free flu or Covid-19 jabs. How to join the Learning Disability Register If you or someone you know would like to join the Learning Disability Register, you should first talk to your doctor’s surgery. You may need to make an appointment to talk about your needs before you join the Learning Disability Register. Mencap have produced an Easy Read guide on how to join the Learning Disability Register: You could also use this Easy Read letter to tell your doctor’s surgery what support you need: Sources: Mencap; https://www.mencap.org.uk/advice-and-support/health/learning-disability-register NHS: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/learning-disabilities/annual-health-checks/ Learning Disability Matters: https://learningdisabilitymatters.co.uk/annual-health-checks-gp-learning-disability-registers/ https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/improving-identification-of-people-with-a-learning-disability-guidance-for-general-practice.pdf https://www.unitedresponse.org.uk/resource/the-learning-disability-register-how-to-sign-up-and-why-you-should/

Hello from the Easy Read Online team and welcome to this month’s update. February’s highlight projects Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights We were pleased to work with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on a piece of work around sharing good practices in supporting disabled people to participate in their communities. We hope that this valuable piece of work can support people to become more involved with their communities around the world. Queen’s Nursing Institute We have also been supporting the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) to produce an Easy Read version of their Community Learning Disability Nursing Standards. The Standards are for nurses who give local community and home care to people with a learning disability. The Easy Read version of the Standards will help people with a learning disability to understand the level of care they can expect to receive. The National Lottery We have worked with the National Lottery on various projects and most recently we’re producing an Easy Read version of their Climate Action Fund application pack. The Easy Read pack will make the application process more accessible to people around the UK who want to apply for funding towards their projects that aim to tackle climate change. Free content! Pharmacy First explainer Last week we published an Easy Read explainer about the government’s new scheme, Pharmacy First. This is a way for people to get treatment for some illnesses at the pharmacy without having to get a prescription from the GP. You can see the Easy Read here - feel free to share! Welcome to the newest member of our team A warm welcome to Victoria who joined the team this month as a technical writer. She has quickly picked up the Easy Read ropes and recently completed her first document for the Health Research Authority. Welcome to the team Victoria! Our team has grown quickly over the last 6 months and we’re now eleven strong, with another new member set to join the ranks later in March! You can read more about the full team on our website: I Need Easy Read campaign Earlier this month we met with the I Need Easy Read campaign group at Mencap Liverpool and Sefton to talk about launching the campaign and raising its profile. Watch this space! Our campaign website is now live and you can have a look here: You can keep up to date with the campaign by following the social media channels: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ineedeasyread Twitter: https://twitter.com/ineedeasyread Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ineedeasyread Thank you That’s all from us for this month. Thank you to all of the clients we have worked with, it’s been a pleasure to support your work in creating accessible information. As ever, if you need to request a quote for information in Easy Read, you can use our online form: Best wishes The Easy Read Online team

Hello from the Easy Read Online team! Welcome to this month’s endeavours.  Easy Read Highlight Projects Havens Hospices   This month we have teamed up with Havens Hospices to make a meaningful difference. Together, we have been translating important information about Havens Hospice services into Easy Read. By providing accessible information, we're empowering individuals with learning disabilities to engage in making vital decisions about their hospice care and support. This is especially important when it comes to end-of-life care decisions. We are committed to continuing our partnership with Havens Hospices well into the future. Here's to making a positive impact, one step at a time! Acts of Resistance Exhibition   Do you enjoy the art of photography? South London Gallery is holding the fantastic Acts of Resistance: Photography, Feminism and the Art of Protest exhibition from 8th March to 9th June. We worked with South London Gallery to create an Easy Read version of their exhibition guide! Check out our work here: https://www.southlondongallery.org/exhibitions/acts-of-resistance/ Free content! Asking for Easy Read   As part of our I Need Easy Read campaign, we created an Easy Read document about… Easy Read! Lots of people still do not know what Easy Read is and how it could benefit their lives. The people who do know about it often do not know how to ask for it! Find out about Easy Read by reading our new free document: https://www.ineedeasyread.org/free-easy-read   Catch next month’s newsletter to get all the juicy details of our campaign launch! Wrap Up That’s all from us this month - a big thanks to all the clients we have worked with, we have thoroughly enjoyed supporting you to create accessible information. If you would like to request a quote for information in Easy Read, you can use our online form: Best wishes, The Easy Read Online team.

Welcome to the first Easy Read Online newsletter of 2025! We’ve started the year with a bang and feel more motivated than ever. Read on to find out what we’ve been up to. Making Art More Accessible with Easy Read In 2024, we ran a competition offering a lucky winner a free Easy Read commission and we’re thrilled that the fantastic Peterborough Presents won! Throughout January, we worked with them to create two Easy Read documents about their upcoming projects, which focus on making their art and creative opportunities more accessible for deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent people. This collaboration is a brilliant example of the Easy Read work we do. The projects’ missions resonate deeply with us, as we’re passionate about breaking down barriers and making the world more accessible for disabled people. We commend Peterborough Presents for their dedication to accessibility. By providing their information in Easy Read, they’re taking real action to ensure more disabled people can engage with their work! You can check out the documents we made for Peterborough Presents here: Improving Through Feedback Over the past few months, we’ve been adapting the structure of our team and creating new roles that focus on client satisfaction. This will help us to identify areas where we can improve our Easy Read service, while staying committed to our mission of creating Easy Read materials that truly meet end-users’ needs. We’ve introduced a new follow-up process, allowing us to gather direct feedback from clients about their experience using our Easy Read service. We’re excited about the insights this will bring, helping us continuously improve and grow as a company. We’ve already received some valuable feedback and testimonials from our clients this month, like this one: ‘Working with Easy Read Online was a brilliant process from start to finish. The team were a dream to work with – from our initial meeting through to receiving the Easy Reads, the team communicated efficiently and well within the timeframe we needed them by. The quality of what was produced was above and beyond what we were expecting and we were extremely happy with the results. You can tell that Easy Read Online is a company that genuinely cares about its audience and clients, and we will 100% be working with them again the next time we need Easy Read!’ International Day of Acceptance The International Day of Acceptance is observed annually on 20th January to: ✅ Promote the social acceptance of disabled people. ✅ Celebrate inclusivity and embrace diversity. ✅ Empower disabled people. ✅ Educate organisations and communities on accessibility. To mark this day, we’re sharing an important document we recently created for Bristol City Council, which reflects the spirit of the International Day of Acceptance. This document is an Easy Read version of Bristol City Council’s ‘Adult Social Care Co-Production Policy’, outlining how the council will work alongside disabled people to shape adult social care and NHS services. The need for this policy emerged when the council recognised that working with  disabled people is essential to providing services that truly meet their needs. Bristol City Council have realised that translating their information into Easy Read is a vital step in making co-production meaningful and accessible. You can read our Easy Read version here: That’s all from us this month! As always, thank you to all of the clients we have worked with. It’s been a pleasure to support you in creating accessible information. If you need to request a quote for information in Easy Read, you can use our online form:

Hello from the Easy Read Online Team! It has been a busy month for us here at Easy Read Online! I Need Easy Read Everyone should have access to clear information that they can understand about the general election. That’s why we created a free document that explains how to find easy read resources. Check it out here: As part of our I need Easy Read campaign, we sent a pledge to over 3,000 candidates running to be MP. We asked them to ensure businesses and organisations provide easy read information and to make sure people in their constituency know what easy read is and how they can ask for it. We are thrilled that over 100 candidates have signed our pledge so far! You can see our pledge here: Did your MP sign our pledge? If not, we would love your help! Please email your MPs to ask for their support! Learning Disability Week Some of our colleagues visited Mencap Liverpool and Sefton, to have a catch-up about the I Need Easy Read Campaign, during Learning Disability Week. This year’s theme: “Do you see me?” Is all about making sure people with learning disabilities feel seen, heard and valued. This fits perfectly with the I Need Easy Read Campaign! We had a lively discussion about how important it is for politicians to make information accessible to everyone! We are all thrilled that the campaign has reached so many people, and long may this continue! Free Content In addition to our free document about the general election, we asked those who subscribe to our newsletter what topics they would benefit from having easy read information written about. They asked for a document about Understanding Death, which you can read here: International Easy Read Community of Practice Some of our team took part in the first-ever ‘International Easy Read Community of Practice’ meeting in June. The group was set up by an Australian Easy Read provider, The Easy Read Toolbox , and the meeting was coordinated by Disability Equality Scotland . The aim of the group is to discuss best practices and to look at establishing some universal Easy Read standards. We’re excited to learn from Easy Read comrades around the world and to share our own experiences. That’s all from us this month! As always, thank you to all of the clients we have worked with. It’s been a pleasure to support you in creating accessible information. If you need to request a quote for information in Easy Read, you can use our online form: