Alternative formats

Making your communications more accessible

To reach all your audience, you need to make effective use of alternative communication formats. The government has responsibilities under the Disability Discrimination Act to provide reasonable alternatives for disabled people.

A strategy for producing alternative formats

Involve disabled people from your audience in developing and reviewing a strategy for producing information in alternative formats. They will know their needs and could help you find the most effective ways of meeting them. You can also approach disability organisations for advice. Your strategy should outline:

How you will anticipate the needs of disabled people.
What minimum standards are in place.
Who is responsible and who will pay for the alternative formats.
What type(s) of information will be given priority.
How you will enforce and monitor the strategy.

Supplying alternative formats – best practice

Involve relevant departments, such as marketing and communications, from the earliest planning stages.
Consider the needs of your audience in advance - assess which, if any, accessible format versions are likely to be required.
Plan ahead – make sure any accessible formats you produce are available at the same time as the standard print.
If you intend to supply accessible formats on demand, procedures should be in place to produce these within a few days of the request.
Be aware that an acceptable standard of on demand accessible format provision may only be possible where few requests are received.
Make sure you are in contact with a range of suppliers who can produce good quality materials in alternative formats.
Make sure any consultation period is not reduced for disabled people due to alternative formats not being available at the launch, or running out during the consultation period.

What you can do

Develop a strategy for producing alternative formats.
Follow the best practice guidance for supplying alternative formats.
Read the Guidelines for what to produce in which formats

What to produce in which formats - guidance

Many publications or communications policies simply state that the user's needs should be considered when deciding on whether to produce particular formats. This does not give communicators a definitive position. The guidance we give here suggests what can reasonably be expected of government departments.

Reducing the need for alternative format versions
Targeting people with particular disabilities
Alternative channels …
Summary versions
Cost/benefit analysis
Welsh or community language versions
Web publishing

1. Reducing the need for alternative format versions

Keep it simple – if your initial document is:

written in Clear English
as concise as possible
designed to be as legible as possible, for example using point 14 typeface

it will already be accessible to a greater number of people and may reduce demand for alternative versions. This is a cost and time-efficient way of producing a popular alternative format, which will make your information instantly accessible to a larger number of your audience.

Making your original document more accessible will reduce the need for producing alternative formats. However, people with some types of visual impairments, learning disabilities, dexterity or literacy difficulties (such as dyslexia) are likely to have difficulty accessing information in written text - even in the largest font size. You therefore still need to consider alternative formats that meet their needs in addition to making your initial document more accessible.

2. Targeting people with particular impairments

Is your campaign specifically targeted at people with particular impairments or do you know there will be a high proportion of people with a particular impairment in your audience? Some formats suit one type of impairment more than another:

Visual impairments - audio, audio description, Braille, Moon, telephone
Learning disabilities and literacy difficulties - audio, audio description, Easy Read, easy access, Makaton, subtitles
Hearing - British Sign Language, Makaton, subtitling, textphone, SMS
Co-ordination difficulties - large print, audio, audio description, telephone

You should also consider any preferences your target audience may have for receiving information, for example younger deaf people may respond better to an SMS message than sub-titled advert. Researching your audience will help you best meet their needs.

3. Alternative channels

For example, you may have produced a print recruitment advert for teachers. Translating this into Braille is unlikely to be the best method of reaching all people with visual impairments. As an alternative you could produce an audio advert for radio, either commercial or a specialist channel such as Insight Radio. You could also deliver your message by engaging with disability organisations directly.

4. Summary versions

It can be more time-consuming and tiring to absorb the same amount of information listening to an audiotape or CD, or watching sign language than scanning through a document by eye.

Consider providing a summary of important points in alternative formats. The most important thing is that the information or messages are received.

For example, a long medical brochure could be summarised before being put into Easy Read or onto audiotape. Give the key points and a contact telephone number for further information.

5. Cost/benefit analysis

It is not cost effective to produce every communication product in every suggested format and language. Producing bulk copies of alternative formats often results in warehouses full of unused stock. Audiotapes, CD-ROMs and DVDs in particular are expensive to produce and store, and go out of date quickly.

A more cost-effective approach is to:

research your target audience at the commissioning stage
segment your audience
consider how to reach audience members using a mix channels and formats, factoring in their costs.

6. Do you need Welsh or community language versions as well?

Legal requirements apply to Welsh language alternatives. When considering what alternative formats to produce, you need to consider what is reasonable under both the Welsh Language Act and the Disability Discrimination Act.

If you are translating disability-related material into Welsh or community languages, it is very important to have them quality assured by someone who understands disability. For example, terms relating to mental health have sometimes been translated in ways that are offensive to some.

7. What about web publishing?

Publishing information on a website gives users some control over their access to the information, as they can alter the font size, colour and contrast.