Shaun on reasonable adjustments

I’ve been making information accessible for over 22 years, and I know how to make information accessible because I’ve got a lot of lived experience, writes Shaun Webster MBE.

That's why reasonable adjustments are very important to people with learning disabilities because reasonable adjustments can give people their independence and their power back. It can also give them more confidence.

When anyone with a learning disability, learning difficulty, or any type of disability joins a GP surgery, hospital, or dentist, they should have a meeting about their reasonable adjustments on the first day they join. They are the expert about their own health and their accessibility needs.

Health professionals need to remember that everyone with a learning disability or a learning difficulty is different, so their reasonable adjustments will also be different.

I also feel that people with a learning disability with lived experience have the expertise to be trainers. They are the best people to train future healthcare workers and social workers, and to explain to them how to make reasonable adjustments before they become fully qualified healthcare professionals.

In the last couple of years at school, I also think pupils should have lessons about reasonable adjustments.

I feel there is a need to make the law stronger about putting reasonable adjustments in healthcare (Editor’s note: reasonable adjustments to improve access to all services are in the Equality Act 2010) and everything else for people with learning disability and other types of disabilities.