This week, we made some changes to the funding information on the website in an effort to make it clearer and easier to understand, along with British Sign Language (BSL) videos of the same information. This positive step towards being more inclusive with our information was thanks to the efforts of Claire Clark, who has been working with us for the last six months on a Communications Internship funded by the Scottish Government through Inclusion Scotland.
We caught up with Claire to find out more about how she has found working here:
“I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Creative Scotland to improve their access and inclusion as an organisation, especially for Deaf audiences and BSL users.
"It has been interesting to research how Creative Scotland communicates with the general public as well as applicants, mainly through the website or social media, and think about how they could improve their level of access. They already have a good attitude towards diversity and offer a range of support, so it was partly just investigating ways to make that better known.
"The re-writing of the online funding information, and production of the BSL videos to go along with it, was the biggest task during my time here. This came with a lot of lessons to be learned and mistakes to be made before we came to the final result. It has been interesting to see the transformation of the language used as we scaled back and simplified it into a more informative manner - how the information hasn’t changed but how we choose to present it has.”
Here's an example of one of the resulting videos, now on our Open Project Fund page:
The Scottish Government recently published a British Sign Language (BSL) National Plan as part of the BSL Scotland Act from 2015. The BSL National Plan aims to improve access for Deaf people across the public sector for which the Scottish Ministers have responsibility, including culture and the arts.
We are delighted to be part of the process of making Scotland a better place for Deaf people to work and live in, and are committed to making our services and materials as accessible as possible. On request, any of our published materials, including funding guidance and applications forms, can be made available in alternative formats and translations.
We are happy to offer support to Deaf or disabled users, tailored to suit individual requests, including one-to-one support, Sign Language Interpreters for meetings and scribing support for dyslexic problems.
James Coltham, Digital Communications Manager at Creative Scotland, said: "It's been fantastic to have Claire with us, bringing a fresh perspective and really challenging us to think about inclusive communications all in its forms. We're grateful to Inclusion Scotland for making this possible, and are determined to continue this important work for the benefit of everyone".
If you would like this information in an alternative format, including translations and BSL translations, or any other access requirement, please contact our Enquiries Service:
Inclusion Scotland is funded by the Scottish Government to create internship opportunities for disabled people in Scotland. These internships give valuable paid work experience to help disabled people develop their careers.
