We believe that it is society that disabled an individual and not an impairment. In order for all individuals to have choice and control over their lives society needs to be fully accessible in terms of infrastructure, accessible information, services and more. We have a group of Deaf & Disabled people and supporters who are experts by lived experience and available to give your organisation valuable feedback on accessibility - we call them our Access Champions. The group is currently made up individuals with a range of impairments, health conditions and backgrounds. 

The feedback of Deaf and Disabled people is extremely valuable. They are experts on accessibility by lived experience. Therefore, we welcome donations or financial contributions for our time. 

If you would like to arrange a meeting with our access champions you can get in contact via email info@mertoncil.org.uk.

A few key steps to consider before meeting with us:

• Prepare and share your presentations/drawings at least 1 week in advance of the meeting. This will allow the access change makers to review the content before the day of the meeting and prepare their queries and comments. Do not include anything after this, as it may exclude some people from being able to fully participate.
• Make sure the presentation content is clear, large enough to read and have good contrast. Keep it simple and do not clutter the slides. Do not use italics, underscore or words in capital letters.
• On the day of the meeting start with introducing yourself, the project and the reasons why you have chose to come to meet with the access change makers. Make your intentions clear on the day, but also in the presentation you share/present.
• Don't assume prior knowledge of anything you are presenting and make sure not to use acronyms and other industry/project jargon.
• Speak clearly and do not rush. Do not cover your mouth and try to look at the audience at all times.
• Talk about everything on your slides and describe any visuals verbally. Paint a picture with your words. Try and give orientation by using landmarks or features.
• If the meeting is longer than an hour, make sure to include a 5/10 minute comfort break. This is also important for zoom/tams meetings.
• Following your time with our access champions, we would appreciate that in return you provide us with an update of the changes you were able to incorporate in your design after meeting with us.

This list of key steps was pulled together by an Access Champion.