Agenda and minutes

To receive and note the minutes of the meeting of the Group held on 29 January 2014.

The minutes of the previous meeting of the Bracknell Forest Access Group held on 29 January 2014 were agreed as a correct record.

To approve the final draft of the Bracknell Forest Retailers’ Guide.

Alison Sanders, Director of Corporate Services, presented a report containing a final draft of the Bracknell Forest Retailers’ Guide.

It was intended that the guide would be used by retailers and service providers as a reference source as to how they might improve customer service for disabled customers.  At the 2013 Bracknell Regeneration partnership’s Retailers Annual Awards Dinner, retailers had been supportive of the idea to produce a guide and ideas gathered at the Awards Dinner had been incorporated into the guide along with information and ideas gathered from the Office for Disability Initiative and similar guides produced by other areas.    The guide had been produced by a small working group made up of individuals with disabilities, disability group representatives, retailers, Bracknell Regeneration Partnership and Borough Councillors.

The Group considered the draft Guide and the associated poster and arising from their questions and comments the following points were noted:

·             The front cover would be amended to show the logos of the Borough Council and Bracknell Regeneration Partnership on the same level as the Council’s logo

·             References in the guide to ‘these people’ would be amended to ‘people’

·             Any writing in coloured banners would be checked to ensure that there was a suitable visual contrast

·             Under the heading ‘People with Speech Problems’ the advice that for some people English may not be a person’s first language would be moved to the generic advice section as a bullet point

·             Emboldened text in the main body of the guide would be unbolded

·             The first sentence of the ‘People with Sight Problems’ section would be deleted and the second sentence amended to read ‘Customers with sight problems may need some extra support with their shopping

·             The second bullet point in the ‘Understanding of Dementia’ section would be amended to read ‘ Difficulties in communicating clearly or at all’

·             The ‘Useful Contacts’ section would be double checked for accuracy on internet links

·             The final paragraph of the guide would be highlighted to make it more prominent

·             The guide would be double checked to ensure that it was grammatically correct and had a consistent style

·             The section ‘People with Hearing Problems’ would be updated to include illustrations of common British Sign Language words

·             A sentence would be added at the back of the guide advising people that they should contact the Borough Council’s Customer Services Team if they had any feedback on the guide or wanted more information

·             The heading on the poster would be  capitalised to match that used for the words ‘ Be Calm, Kind and Clear’

·             The heading ‘Dementia/Autism Awareness would be removed from the poster

Bracknell Regeneration Partnership were keen to see the whole of the Borough become a centre for excellence for customer service and would be launching the guide at a Retailer Event in the summer.  The guide would also be sent to retailers, service providers, voluntary and community groups and town and parish councils across the Borough and distributed at any disability awareness retailer training that took place.  A  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

There were no additional items of business.

To suggest items for discussion at future meetings.

The next meeting of the Bracknell Forest Access Group will be held on 2^nd July 2014 at 7.30pm in Easthampstead Baptist Church.

It was agreed that the following items would be discussed at future meetings of the Group:

·             Disabled Go Update

·             Master Planning of New Developments for Accessibility

It was noted that the next meeting of the Bracknell Forest Access Group would take place on 2 July 2014 at 7.30pm in Easthampstead Baptist Church.