I have to email every time I want a letter in large print - how is this reasonable?

[TigerRag]

The equalities act 2010 states that companies have to make reasonable adjustments. I've been complaining about this since 2015. I've so far had get someone else to read it, there's not enough demand and our system doesn't allow us to put letters in an alternate format

It's my local council. They're the only company I've dealt with who claim I'm asking the impossible. I was hoping that getting my local councillor involved would change things. It hasn't

is it really reasonable to suggest that I have to ask to every time I receive a letter I can't read? I'm bored of dealing with this

No, you shouldn't have to do that
but in the meantime download the ChatGPT app and when you get a letter take a photo of it and ask it to read it out loud to you, or transcribe it in large font.

Is your sight problem registered with the council. My husband is now Visually Impaired when the hospital classed him as such we had to fill out a form and state which council we were under as they would write to the council. The council sent a letter acknowledging in bold print what the hospital told them and said one of their team would be in touch to see if we needed any help. The person who contacted us is part of what they called the Sensory Team.

Better still ask ChatGPT to guide you through the process of enforcing your rights.

Hi @TigerRag, I've been fighting for over 20 years on behalf of my children for accessible information. My daughter fights constantly with her local council. It's disgusting that local authorities claim to be unable to provide accessible information - they have computers, IT departments, photocopiers - what more do they need except the will to help?!

Nope. Make a complaint and go to the local government and social care ombudsman. Alternatively if you have the money you could take them to court for disability discrimination.

You may find this useful https://www.lgo.org.uk/assets/attach/6252/Focus-Report-Reasonable-Adjustments-F.pdf

I used to work for a Local Authority. It's not difficult to put an A4 letter in a photocopier and reproduce it at A3 size instead. Escalate this via your local Councillor.

I work for a LA & we have a reasonable adjustments policy which covers printing letters etc in large font. Have you checked your LA's website for their policy as they should have one?

In my LA none of the different departments copouter systems 'talk' to each other, which means when you ask council tax for example to print out everything for you in size 22, they will update their records to do so but this wont automatcially be shared with the waste collection services, education, planning, social care etc as none of their systems are compatible.

This can be shared with the other departments but it would have to be manually completed (i.e someone would have to email each department to ask that they manually update their records on their systems to do this). It can be done but realistically you would need to ask for it to be completed when you make your initial request.

Have you already made a formal complaint to your LA? Have you had responses to your stage 1 and stage 2 complaints? If you have & you are still unhappy with their response, you must contact the Local Government & Social care ombudsman who have the powers to force LAs to change their practices to follow the law & can also order them pay you compensation, apologise etc.

I know its frustrating to hear all of this, but the vast majority of our computer systems were put in over 20 years and there has been no investment in upgrading them as their is no money to do so (nobody wants to pay more council tax which would fund capital investment etc). When new staff join us from the private sector they genuinely cant believe the state of our IT - it would have been quite old when we got it in mid 2000's - they hadnt seen our system for over 30 years in the private sector!

Good luck

but the vast majority of our computer systems were put in over 20 years

Suggesting that no one gave a shit about the disabled 2- years ago ?

(That's one way of saying don't allow yourself to parrot your employers excuses).