Could we communicate better?

We are aware that we do not always manage to communicate well with tenants and staff who have communication support needs – we want to do better. People have communication support needs if they need support with understanding, expressing themselves, or interacting with others.

We want to invite adult tenants and staff with communication support needs to one of four focus groups to look at how we can improve the accessibility of communications within Saffron. We will have some ideas for improvements for you to give your opinion on. And we would love to hear your ideas about how else we can improve Saffron’s communications.

The focus group will take 2 hours and staff will be allowed to step away from their usual duties to attend. Travel expenses etc. will be reimbursed.

The dates, locations and topics of the focus groups are as follows:

1. Monday 3^rd July – ‘General communication access’, Victory House in Long Stratton
2. Thursday 6^th July – ‘Hearing access’, Swallowtail Place in Acle. There will be a British Sign Language interpreter at this session.
3. Monday 10^th July – ‘Access for people with learning difficulties’ (including specific learning difficulties e.g. dyslexia), Mendham Close in Harleston
4. Thursday 13^th July – ‘Visual access’, Ogden Close in Wymondham

All sessions are 7pm-9pm, with food on arrival at 6.30pm. All venues are wheelchair accessible and have accessible toilets.

To ensure a diversity of viewpoints we ask that you complete a short survey so we can invite people with a range of experiences and expertise. The survey will take about 10 minutes to complete.

Please click here to access the survey. Please ignore any questions in the survey relating to further dates for the focus groups. Dates, times and locations have been booked in due to staff availability.

All enquiries about this project can be directed to Dr Katherine Deane, Access Ambassador at the University of East Anglia k.deane@uea.ac.uk.

You can find a video explaining the project by clicking here. This video includes a British Sign Language interpreter.