The Scottish Accessible Information Forum (SAIF) is a project funded by the Scottish Executive and based in the Scottish Consumer Council. It has a remit to carry forward recommendations made by the Scottish Working Group on Information Services for People with Disabilities and Carers. The development of these Standards was one of the recommendations contained in the working group’s final report Enabling Information (1995).
This is the second revised edition of the SAIF Standards for Disability Information and Advice Provision in Scotland. The first edition was produced in 1999, before the implementation of the Disability Discrimination Act and the establishment of a Disability Rights Commission (DRC). The second edition was published in 2004.
The legislation, the Disability Rights Commission, the SAIF Standards and many other initiatives have led to increased accessibility over recent years, but wherever you look you see the need for more progress. Ongoing tasks for SAIF are to develop the Standards further and to continue to campaign for greater awareness and improvements.
This edition of the SAIF Standards is written in plainer language and restructured and redesigned to be even more accessible.
Again the Standards are written on the basis of a ‘social model’ rather than a ‘medical model’ of disability. As such, they are designed to encourage disabled people to make demands upon service providers and to take part in ongoing developments and improvements.
The Standards aim to address the accessibility concerns raised by disabled people:
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the design and layout of buildings,
- the range of formats available,
- the awareness, attitudes and knowledge of staff.
Some of these issues, such as the physical constraints of buildings, may raise resource issues. Others, such as staff attitudes, may reflect a lack of commitment on the part of management to ensuring the accessibility of services for disabled people.
Go to the next page: The Role of the Standards
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(c) Scottish Accessible Information Forum, 2007
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