RNID: For deaf and hard of hearing people.

Care user pours a drink from a kettle. A care worker is with him.

Eden Supported Housing supports people with many different types of disabilities in whatever circumstances they choose to live in their own homes. Eden aims to support them to be as independent as possible and so enable them to achieve whatever they want to in their lives. Staff work alongside people to support them in reaching their full potential and maximise their independence in their own accommodation and enable them to achieve what they want to in their day to day lives. Staff offer support in client's own accommodation and the type of support offered differs in its range and complexity but mainly involves one to one support, with telephone and some email activity to wider networks.

though we felt that Eden was already a "deaf aware" organisation, the charter has helped make our organisation more accessible

As a provider of supported living services for deaf and hard of hearing people and an employer of deaf staff, Eden Supported Housing felt it was important to demonstrate their commitment to allowing deaf and hard of hearing people to access their service on a completely equal basis with hearing people. Achieving this meant being sure they were fully aware of the communication and accessibility requirements of deaf and hard of hearing people and working positively to meet their needs.

Andy Callow, Service Manager at Eden Supported Housing thought it was important they receive expert advice and approached RNID to ask for the organisation to be benchmarked for the Louder than Words Charter in recognition of their commitment to improving accessibility for deaf people.
 
On completing the benchmark it was clear that Eden Supported Housing were a diverse organisation with a good level of deaf awareness. Procedures already in place included:

  • deaf awareness training as an integral part of its induction training for all new staff 
  • British Sign Language training was offered for all staff working alongside deaf people
  • a programme was in place for ensuring Senior Management staff were kept up to speed on deaf awareness training. 
the process was very positive and RNID were helpful and supportive

However, there were a number of areas where RNID's expertise proved invaluable, this included advising on appropriate deaf friendly policies and procedures and providing advice about the type and availability of assistive technology. Changes made within the organisation as a result of RNID's Louder than Words Benchmarking Report include:

  • improvements to policies and procedures to improve accessibility for deaf and hard of hearing people. These were commended in the benchmark report but recommendations were made to implement changes to Company wide communication and documentation systems, e.g. review and feedback from staff, application forms, newsletters, memorandums which were not wholly accessible and now as a result of the process are.
  • job application forms now include questions about communication needs at interview, 
    training videos used for training purposes are now subtitled
  • contact details on stationery and website were changed to include textphone numbers

In addition several new pieces of equipment have been purchased including:

  • additional vibrating pagers
  • portable loop system to complement the fixed system already in place.  This allowed staff to hold meetings in several different locations.
  • purchase of loop tester and implementation of loop testing procedure

Commenting on the whole process Andy Callow said:

"It has been a very valuable experience, resulting in a number of changes to the way in which we provide our services. Even though we felt that Eden was already a "deaf aware" organisation, the Louder than Words charter has helped us to make our organisation more accessible to deaf and hard of hearing people. The process was a very positive one and the RNID was helpful and supportive. We would recommend the award to other organisations."