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CSCI (Commission for Social Care Inspection) is the social care regulator for England. Our job is to improve social care and stamp out bad practice.
People who use social care services are at the heart of our new website, which launched in April this year.
Our aim was to break down the barriers in getting access to information about choosing and finding care. And we created a site where the content and its delivery is firmly rooted in the spirit of accessibility.
Visitors to the site can get lots of useful information such as checklists on what makes a good care home, advice on how to get a care assessment and help with how to pay for care.
To make this essential information available to as many people as possible we went way beyond a 'box ticking' approach to accessibility.
We directly involved dozens of people who use social care services and their families in the development of the website. And we took views from over 200 more people via an online survey.
We made sure we acted on what our users told us and changed the website as a result of their feedback.
As well as writing everything in plain English we translated all core information into six other languages.
We also worked with the charity Mencap to create easy-to-read pages with pictures and sound for people with a learning disability.
The new website is much easier to use and has been given the RNIB See It Right logo and the Plain English Campaign internet kitemark.
Our users tell us we have created a site that is nothing like the usual public sector website, where they can easily get the information they need no matter who they are.
For more information on how we made our website accessible please see:
http://www.csci.org.uk/system_pages/accessibility.aspx
http://www.csci.org.uk/system_pages/get_help_using_this_site.aspx Ben Thompson
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