Recommendation 20

NHS health and publicly funded social care services are legally required, by the Accessible Information Standard, published under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, to provide health and care information to patients and service users in a way they can understand. The aim is to ensure a consistent approach to identifying and meeting the information and communication needs of patients and 46 Unequal impact? Coronavirus, disability and access to services: full Report service users, their carers and families. Disabled people’s experiences of inaccessible public health information from the Government during this pandemic have been unacceptable. Disabled people have been put at risk through lack of access to vital information. Their communication needs should have been anticipated as a matter of course. Everyone should have the right to receive public health information in a format they can understand. We recommend the Accessible Information Standard be extended to apply to all public health messages from government departments.