How the right tech can make the NHS accessible to all

On Tuesday 7 March at 1pm GMT, we were joined by guest speakers from NHS Wales and SignHealth, to share how boosting digital skills will help both National Health Service (NHS) patients and staff alike.

During the webinar:

• Attendees had the opportunity to pose questions to the panel about how patients and staff can use technology within and for the NHS 
• Received an update about how the Accessible Information Standard affects you and your NHS appointments
• Learned about NHS-related campaigns and how you can get involved
• Discovered how tech can help disabled people communicate with NHS staff and systems
• Found out about staff digital skills development within the NHS
• Learned how AbilityNet has been working with NHS organisations to boost technical skills

Live captions and BSL translation were provided.

The webinar recording, slides and transcript are available on this page. The Q&A responses will be added soon.

How the right tech can make the NHS accessible to all - AbilityNet webinar slides via SlideShare

Meet the panel

Lee Ballantyne, NHS Wales

Lee Ballantyne, Digital Skills Programme Manager, Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) is leading on the development and implementation of a digital capability framework for healthcare staff in Wales. The aim is to provide accessible and actionable guidance to individuals and teams so they can better understand the skills, attitudes, and behaviours required to participate fully in a digital world.

James Watson-O'Neill and Abigail Gorman, SignHealth

James joined the Deaf health charity SignHealth as chief executive in 2016 and has worked in the charity sector since 2001, including a variety of roles at Scope and the NSPCC. James is a trustee of the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group; a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce; and a Leadership Fellow at the Society of Leadership Fellows at the College of St George at Windsor Castle. James was awarded an OBE for services to Deaf people in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours 2022.

Abigail Gorman has been Policy and Public Affairs Manager at SignHealth since 2021, and before that was the charity's Young Person Violence Advisor. She works with James on the charity's input into the Accessible Information Standard and was nominated as a Positive Role Model for the National Diversity Awards 2020.

Alex Barker, AbilityNet

Alex Barker has worked for AbilityNet for nearly 20 years and has recently become a Disability Consultant at the charity. Alex has Moebius Syndrome, a very rare condition that causes paralysis in facial muscles, club foot, missing limbs and sometimes cognitive issues too. So he understands a lot of the difficulties disabled people have when using technology.

This webinar lasted for 60 minutes and include an opportunity to pose questions to the guest speakers.

All registrants receive the recording, slides and transcript after the event, so do sign up even if you can't attend on the broadcast date.

Q&As

This webinar lasted 60 minutes and included an opportunity to pose questions to the guests. The panel were able to answer many questions from attendees during the live session, which you can find by watching the webinar playback or accessing the transcript. Here are some additional questions we weren't able to answer at the time:

Q: One of the problems with the standard is there is no real policing of it and no penalties for not adhering to it. What would you suggest people do to encourage NHS services to make an effort to make these changes?

James from SignHealth: I’d encourage people to complain! We know that many complaints processes aren’t accessible so this may be difficult. Still, we also know that boards and committees regularly review data on complaints, as does Care Quality Commission (CQC), etc so the more complaints that are made the better as that will really make a difference in the long-term. CQC does have new powers under the recent changes to legislation as they will be able to inspect Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and the CQC is involved in NHS England’s review of the Accessible Information Standard (AIS) so we may see increased powers to inspect on the basis of the AIS and we should certainly see an increased interest in it.

Q: What help can we offer patients today?

James from SignHealth: The AIS is in force now and has been since 2016 so we’d encourage patients to know their rights and keep asking for the AIS to be complied with!

Useful links

• Access SignHealth's review of of the NHS Accessible Information Standard
• Sign up for the AbilityNet newsletter
• Speak to our accessibility experts
• Discover more AbilityNet webinars