The National Assembly for Wales continues to win awards as a top deaf-friendly organisation, being awarded an Action on Hearing Loss Cymru's Excellence Wales award again this year.
The Assembly achieved the AHL Louder than Words accreditation in 2013, and retained it in 2014 and 2015. In 2015, the Assembly were also awarded Action on Hearing Loss Cymru’s Silver Excellence Wales Award.
The awards are organised to recognise success in providing deaf-friendly services to the 530,000 people in Wales who are deaf or have a hearing loss.
“I am proud of the commitments the National Assembly has to making itself accessible to all.” said Elin Jones AM, the Assembly’s Presiding Officer.
“From BSL videos and tours of the Senedd to mandatory online training for all staff, we are committed to providing support to people who are deaf or have a hearing loss.”
“I would also like to thank the Assembly’s Equalities Team for ensuring we deliver exemplar services that are recognised by external partners.”
Richard Williams, the director of Action on Hearing Loss Cymru, said:
“The judging panel had the really difficult job of deciding the winners from an impressive shortlist, but I think they have done a fantastic job. All of our winners prove that simple changes can make the lives of people with hearing loss more manageable on a day to day basis.
“I hope that organisations across Wales are inspired by our winners and start to think about changes they can make to ensure their services are accessible to the one in six people who are deaf or hard of hearing.”
Evidence the National Assembly for Wales provided included:
- mandatory online equality training for all staff;
- many staff, including all of our public facing staff have undergone Disability Confidence training;
- loop systems available across our estate;
- BSL and subtitles available for First Minister’s Questions on Senedd.tv;
- BSL video as part of our communication plan for our equality plan consultation;
- BSL tours of our building for Disabled Access Day. We have also created a BSL video to encourage BSL users to take a tour of the Assembly;
- delivered presentations to encourage democratic engagement and used BSL videos and communication support when necessary.