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The focus of this theme is to improve the accessibility of buildings, services and communication, so that they can be used by everyone. This ranges from developing community hubs so that key services can be accessed locally, making sure that facilities and health and safety arrangements within buildings are suitable for people with disabilities, and supporting digital inclusion.

The Covid pandemic highlighted the disadvantages faced by people who do not have access to digital resources and local facilities. Disabled people, older people, and children and young people experiencing poverty were more likely to have difficulty in accessing a device, accessing digital content or having the necessary digital literacy skills.

The priority outcome for the first year of this framework is therefore that stakeholders experience easier access to services through increased digital inclusion and alternative access to services.

The range of actions currently planned or underway is described below. The groups of people that these actions are intended to benefit are older and younger people, people whose first language is not English, people with disabilities and people experiencing poverty.

Actions progress the general duty of eliminating discrimination and advancing equality.

Mainstream actions

Accessibility in the built environment

Accessibility spans access to and within buildings, the provision of fire escape refuges and visual and audible alarms, and the numbers and sizes of accessible facilities including toilets.

Every new building or building undergoing renewals or upgrades has to demonstrate accessibility (including visual and acoustic) before the Council will grant a Building Warrant to proceed. The Council have worked with the Edinburgh Access Panel, education disability specialists, school staff, accessibility consultants, and wider groups for various different projects.

An annual £400,000 budget has been ring-fenced from the Capital Investment Programme from 2021/22 onwards to fund accessibility upgrades and part of this will require an Accessibility Officer post to identify, assess and oversee the delivery of accessibility projects for the Council’s 600+ operational buildings.

Accessibility will also be enhanced through adaptations at schools to allow pupils with additional support needs to attend mainstream schools. The creation of ’20-minute neighbourhoods’ will improve access to services through more accessible community hubs.

Responses to consultation on the draft outcomes showed that the accessibility of toilets remains a particular challenge, exacerbated Covid restrictions. Physical constraints, space and cost are factors which determine what is possible in each situation. A report will be presented to the Transport and Environment Committee in April 2021 detailing the strategic plan for public conveniences and how it will address some of these issues.

More generally, the Council recently published the City Mobility Plan which supports broader actions to address poverty, exclusion and inequality, and to improve safety, health and wellbeing.

Accessible communication

All Council services will embed basic accessibility skills and good practice into their communications to meet legislative requirements. This will include using plain English, implementing our British Sign Language Plan (2018-24) and ensuring that written materials are accessible to assistive technology such as screen reading software as well as meet online accessibility legislation.

Actions to support the priority outcome

The priority outcome for the first year of this framework is that stakeholders experience easier access to services through increased digital inclusion and alternative access to services.

The Council’s Digital and Smart City Strategy will increase access to services through digital means and address digital exclusion created by lack of digital skills or access to digital devices. Our evidence showed that older people, some people with disabilities and those with literacy difficulties would be positively impacted the most by our work towards digital inclusion whilst still ensuring alternative access to services.

Key action areas will include undertaking annual accessibility audits and publishing accessibility statements, for the Council’s core web sites and intranet; supporting the delivery of additional devices e.g. iPads to assist educators, learners and parents/carers to take advantage of digital technology opportunities and provide and signposting a wide range of digital support tools within libraries including providing access to computers, the Internet, digital content, and digital literacy programmes.

Performance

The following specific priority activities to support digital inclusion will be monitored:

• offer greater flexibility and new ways to access services by moving them online through our citizen digital enablement programme
• aiming for five new online services or transactions per year
• making sure that website content can be accessed by everyone, regardless of disability (compliance with Public Sector Bodies; (Websites and Mobile Applications) Regulations
• providing additional devices and enhanced connectivity to pupils to support home and blended learning
• track the volume of digital transactions in libraries on a year-on-year basis and put in place special arrangements to measure digital uptake within vulnerable client groups eg Syrian refugees.

Progress with improving access more generally will be considered through:

• accessibility of community hubs, as part of the implementation of 20-minute neighbourhoods
• capital investment programme (accessibility funding) spend
• annual accessibility audits undertaken/accessibility statements published.