Research Ready Communities: how accessible is YOUR research to people with visual impairments?

You have promoted your research on a great poster, and it’s on the TV screen in the clinic waiting room. You’ve also sent text messages out to your target audience.

Great!

But what have you done to make sure your message is accessible to the visually impaired? 

In a survey carried out by local charity CamSight, which supports people across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough with visual impairment and blindness, fewer than one in five had taken part in a research study – but nearly three in five understood how important it is for people to take part in research, while more than two in five said that they would take part if the research was in an accessible format.

These are the kind of stumbling blocks that the Research Ready Communities (RRC) programme from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) aims to overcome.

And as part of the programme, the NIHR East of England Regional Research Delivery Network (RRDN) has collaborated with CamSight to produce guidance and a checklist for researchers who are designing and delivering health and social care research studies.

Please click on the links below to access the documents. Can’t access the links? Email the NIHR East of England RRDN to receive electronic copies.

• Research Accessibility for people with a Visual Impairment
  Co-authored by Donna Coe from NIHR East of England RRDN and Tahmina Begum, NIHR Community Research Champion and Support and Advice Worker at CamSight 
• Researcher Guidance: Making research design and delivery accessible for people with a visual impairment
  This sets out suggestions for making research accessible for people with a visual impairment.
• Accessibility checklist for designing and delivering research for people with a visual impairment