Barriers faced by people with disabilities accessing public services
- One of the major barriers faced by people with disabilities when accessing public services is the lack of accessible information. This is a significant issue across a wide range of public services including education, health and access to justice. An accessible guide to the court services is one way to assist people with disabilities. Another example is contact by phone. More and more people are contacting service providers via the telephone. Therefore, it is important to have systems in place to address the needs of people with hearing loss, speech impairments or people with intellectual disabilities.
- Customer services barriers: Very often organisations lack a clear commitment to accessibility. In order to assist people with disabilities, service providers should have a dedicated point of contact, an access policy and action plan to highlight how they are working towards making their services accessible for all.
- Lack of accessible transport: One of the common barriers faced by people with disabilities is access to public transport.
- Attitudinal barriers: A regular complaint made by people with disabilities is the lack of staff awareness when meeting and greeting customers with disabilities. Therefore, it is important to provide satisfactory customer services and ensure all staff are welcoming and to ensure a high level of customer services for people with disabilities.
- The physical environment: It is recognised that the physical accessibility of buildings is improving. However far too often access within buildings is restricted due to poor circulation; poor wayfinding and signage, inadequate lighting, lack of visual contrast to assist people with visual impairments and inadequate numbers of hearing enhancement systems to assist people with hearing impairments.
The following are a number of ways that you can make your services more accessible to accommodate all people regardless of their age, stature or disability:
- Carry out an access audit and ensure your premises, services and information is accessible. It is good practice to have access audits carried out to ensure your premises, websites, policies, information and customer services are accessible and to identify any improvements that can be made.
- Ensure all staff are have undertaken Disability Awareness Training. This training should be carried out in-line with the requirements outlined by the National Disability Authority.
- Appoint someone within the organisation with responsibility for implementing accessibility and Universal Design.
- Ensure your building and environment is a safe and healthy environment for all staff. For further information, review the Health and Safety Authority’s guide entitled “Employees with Disabilities – An employer’s guide to implementing inclusive health and safety practices for employees with disabilities”.
- Ensure effective consultation takes place with all staff and members of the public. Remember people with disabilities will have a better idea of how to overcome the barriers in place to make your services fully accessible for all.
- Ensure you monitor and review the effectiveness of all improvements made and proactively promote that your organisation is committed to improving accessibility.
If you would like further information or assistance on making your services accessible, please do not hesitate to contact one of our team on 01-4151285 or e-mail [email protected]
