iSightCornwall’s Top Tips for Employers

Top Tips for Businesses to become Disability Confident

Did you know latest research shows that businesses are losing up to £2 billion a month by ignoring the needs of disabled people?

Whether this is due to their place of business being inaccessible or the lack of confidence in how to help someone with a disability.

Here at iSightCornwall we encourage all businesses to make themselves more disability confident and we offer help, advice, and support to those who would like to try. Becoming a more accessible businesses need not cost the Earth and we have some helpful tips on how to help an employee or client with sight loss.

Top tips:

• Small changes can make the biggest difference! Simply using bright orange tactile dots known as bumpons can be a quick and cheap way of instantly improving your accessibility. They can be placed on light switches, phones and even on the microwave in the staff room for someone with sight loss to easily be able to identify where they need to press or what a button does.
• Many businesses’ first instinct when dealing with someone who is visually impaired is to use braille. Braille can be a fantastic resource for those who are able to read it, but unfortunately, fewer than 1% of the two million visually impaired people in the UK are users of Braille. Resources in braille are very expensive to produce and an employee or customer with sight loss may be unable to read it. Instead speak to the person and find out how they prefer to receive correspondence and resources. Most people with sight loss do have some vision and using large point fonts (16-22pt), contrasting colours (black text on yellow paper for example) and matte paper (glossy paper can cause glare which makes it harder to read) can make a world of difference. For those who cannot see written resources, audio versions can be very helpful. These could be recorded inhouse or there are companies who specialize in creating audio versions.
• Train your team on how to interact with someone who may not be able to see them. When you enter the room to speak with a person with sight loss, ensure you say who you are as the person might not be able to make out your features. Make sure to always ask before helping someone and if the person with sight loss consents to being guided, place their hand on your elbow and slowly help them get to where they’re going, describing any obstacles or tricky spaces they may encounter.
• Gadgets and technology! There are a range of gadgets available to help people with sight loss. From the affordable but fantastic talking cube clocks which can tell someone the time with a push of the button – to a bigger investment of electronic magnifiers and specialist software. There’s something out there for everyone with the aim of helping people to stay independent and there are plenty of ways of funding these gadgets with grant applications and opportunities such as the Government’s Access to Work scheme. There are even free settings and software within most devices to help assist with accessibility. For more information on gadgets and software, click here to visit our assistive technology page or click here to browse some of the items in the iSightCornwall shop.
• Most importantly if you’re not sure about something then ask! Sight loss is different for everyone and the best way of finding out how you can help is to simply ask them.

We are always willing to help businesses and employers with support and advice. If you have any queries, please call us on 01872 261110 or email info@isightcornwall.org.uk.