Braille, Easy Read and British Sign Language
In addition to written translation, interpreting and voice over recordings in over 120 languages, we can assist with communications aimed at the deaf, blind or even people with learning disabilities.
These accessibility services are most often required by Government bodies, but nowadays many businesses offer their clients an option to request Braille or audio versions of their documents too.
If you work with companies that require Braille documents, we can help with transcription into Braille. Our experienced Braille specialists can advise on approaching such projects including the best practices for converting documents with maps or graphs, or even how to split large documents so they are manageable for Braille readers.
Also, not many people know that there are few versions of Braille. Some standards are used globally, but there are countries that use their own variations, for instance, the USA use a different version of Braille to the one used in UK. Therefore, it is important to understand your target audience and use the correct version; which is similar to translation into other languages, it is always crucial to use the appropriate dialect otherwise your message might be misunderstood or even ignored altogether.
When understanding of the message is crucial to people’s health and safety, the appropriate approach is required even for communication in English. For these sorts of instances, where the message needs to be easily understood by majority of the population, even people with learning difficulties, we can provide a service which is called Easy Read. Our colleagues specialising in Easy Read format, convert the message from your documents with the use of images and very simple descriptive language. The UK Government uses this format for their ‘Fire Kills’ campaigns to ensure everyone has access to the life saving information.
The third accessibility service in our portfolio is the British Sign Language. It is used for communicating with deaf people and our BSL interpreters have vast experience in communicating with deaf people during training sessions, meetings, or even for video recording purposes where the BSL interpreter is recorded during signing and that is used for movies, training or H&S safety material.
As you can see, we can help with breaking barriers when communicating with overseas clients and we can also help with communications directed at the deaf or blind people through Braille or British Sign Language.
