Up tp date accessibe information guidelines.

Introduction.

For people with disabilities and health problems to understand information mainly when the information is important, it needs to be accessible and easy for us to read. A lot of people have had their support cut and many may have a small amount of family support if they are lucky but most may have no support.  For example; we tend to find anything important is not accessible like letters for our benefits or bills we may need to pay. That's just two things but there may be other important things we don't understand because the information is not accessible for us understand whether it's important or not.

Here some guidelines from Mencap that people with disabilities and health problems wrote. However'  different ways are and are not accessible to different people so please ask people what is and what isn't accessible to them before providing them with information.
Also be honest, if there's anything the place you work can't provide to make the information accessible, please let the person know and explain to the person what the information means if they have problems understanding what it means, highlights it if needs to be. However' if the person does bring support with them to tell whoever that is to explain to them. Try to make important information direct for example; You must post your benefit form and letter tomorrow!
 More information about the update accessible information guidelines is on the Mencap website http://www.accessibleinfo.co.uk/pdfs/Making-Myself-Clear.pdf
https://sararevealed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/clear-information.html
https://sararevealed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/learning-disability-and-mental-health.html
https://sararevealed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/about-disabilities-and-health-problems.html
https://sararevealed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/dyslexia-awareness-handout.html
https://sararevealed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/useful-websites.html
https://sararevealed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/under-friendly-part-4.html
https://sararevealed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/user-friendly-handout-part-3.html
https://sararevealed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/user-friendly-handouts-part-2.html
https://sararevealed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/user-friendly-handouts.html

1. Use simple text ( plain Engish. No jargon. Try to write as you speak. Don't use unnecessary detail or abbreviation. If you need to use hard words explain to the person what they mean. 
2. Use a dictionary or thesaurus to see if you can make the launage any easier for them, if not explain why and what you mean.   
3. Be plain in what you write and say, cut out and unnecessary information, make sure important information to the person is provided whether it's for their needs or wants so the person doesn't miss out on anything important.
4. short sentences. 
5. Use simple punctuation, avoid semicolons; colons: hyphens- or and broken up sentences with many commas.
6. Short words.
7. Highlight words that you may not be able to shorten and explain to the person what you mean.
8. Large print at least size 12 font at least.
9. plenty of typeface and spacing.
10. Bullet points, 123, ABC, for listing, instructions, logical, one step at a time order to do or and not do things or and etc.
11. Try to make sure words like eggs, bacon, beans are put into the bullet point, lists, 123, ABC rather than one line and in comma lists. 
12. Images, pictures, photos, symbols, story boxes and can make the information clear to most people. 
13.   If you are writing for adults pick your pictures and that very careful and make sure the pictures are not childish. Go through the pictures with the person to see what they like.
14. Do not rely heavily on abstract symbols unless you know your readers are confident symbol user. Chose one of two simple, pictorial symbols or and etc. 
15. Put them to the side of the words.  Pictures on the right and writing on the left.
16. Some people may prefer tapes, videos, DVDs or and etc with their writing, just the writing or just tapes for example. 
17. If you send emails remember that formatting can be lost. This can make materials hard to understand so please try to save them if you can. 
18. It's important to get to know your audience so you know what is and isn't accessible to them so you can do your best to provide what is easy for them to read.
19. Whenever possible involve your audience in the creative process, seek advice and ideas of people with learning disabilities as early as possible.
20. Most people prefer numbers to be written in numbers for example 22 rather than twenty - two.
21. Active verbs for eg; John loves Mary. not. Mary is loved by John. 
22. Use full stops don't use other punctuation marks.
23. Do not use abbreviations for eg ; do not. not eg; don't.