BRAILLE TRANSLATIONS LTD

This is exactly our experience. Being registered blind trying to explain to someone that getting on a train home from work is not that easy when there are no staff to escort me to the platform is not particularly helpful. The solution is speak to the TFL helpline and get a bus instead, I contact the tfl helpline and they give me details of a bus to Harlow not St Albans???? I do not think anyone can understand how terrifying this is for someone with our founders disability!!!

Or closing down my business which I have worked so hard to establish!!

Access to Work. Not working? Last week at an event I attended an Access to Work stall. I asked advice on the current waiting times as I made an application for support from this scheme in mid January. They advised me the current waiting time was 24 weeks, so to chase up as I should have heard by now as we are 35 weeks down the line. Today, I attempted this. I was put on hold for 36 minutes and when got connected was told they were starting to process applications from 5th January which is a few weeks before mine was logged. I asked when I could expect to hear regarding my application and told unfortunately I cannot say. I respectfully explained that this was unacceptable. I also asked for an email to continue this conversation as with my hearing loss I struggle on the telephone and the music whilst waiting had given me a headache as it was high pitched which is painful for me. I was informed I don't think we can offer that. I swiftly but politely informed them of my rights under the Equality Act 2010 to reasonable adjustments and that I was asking for a legally valid reasonable adjustment here. I was then put on hold for another 22 mins - yes, that awful high pitched music again grating me. They eventually returned with an email address. I only got this information by exercising my rights under the law, but it makes me wonder how many people would do this or know of their rights as I do? How many would have simply given up even before the call got answered because of the time wasted oh, and the awful music and repeated message every 15 seconds? The government maintains they inherited an Access to Work system unfit for purpose. However, we have seen no progress nor improvements since July 2024. This is also against a backdrop of their plans to get more disabled people into the workplace. How is this going to happen without providing them with the necessary support to make the workplace accessible in a timely mannner? Many leading disability organisations are calling on the government to address these issues as a matter of urgency. I stand wholeheartedly behind them.

It feels like Access to Work is a bad joke at this point! It has been brought to my attention by a couple of different people today that they have had an auto-response when emailing the complaints team - to say that the inbox is no longer monitored. So, I diligently sent a test email to ATW.COMPLAINTSRESOLUTIONTEAM@dwp.gov.uk This is the response I got... "We are no longer responding to emails sent to this inbox. If you are an Access to Work customer and wish to discuss an issue with our services, please contact us by: Telephone: 0800 121 7479 Textphone: 0800 121 7579 Relay UK (if you cannot hear or speak on the phone): 18001 then 0800 121 7479 British Sign Language (BSL) video relay service if you’re on a computer - find out how to use the service on mobile or tablet Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm Find out about call charges If phone calls are difficult for you (for example, because you’re deaf or hard of hearing), you can ask for all communication to be by email instead." I would be fascinated to talk to the person who made the decision, in the face of increasing numbers of complaints, to remove one of the key ways that people make those complaints. My key issues are (among many!): 1. Complaints are often easiest made by email. Complainants are able to include timelines, summarise key information and make sure their full complaint is clear and easy to understand. Giving that same information by phone is likely to be harder for many (even without a disability that makes phone calls hard). 2. For those who need email communication as a reasonable adjustment - it appears the only way to request this is by phoning the helpline number provided! Which just feels Kafkaesque. Yes there is textphone and Relay UK but I suspect that users of that with the helpline will tell you it's difficult to manage. 3. An email can be sent off at any time - whereas the helpline is only available during working hours, Monday to Friday and often takes an hour to be answered (if you're not cut off first). Overall, this seems like a bizarre (and barely legal!) way of reducing the number of complaints they have to deal with. I will be submitting an Freedom of Information request tomorrow, but for now I am baffled and fuming. It seems like the DWP is becoming a parody of itself. #AccessToWork #AtW #DWP #Complaints

Bus passes with time restrictions lock disabled people out of society. We are disabled 24 hours a day we don't start at 9.30am and stop at 11pm and neither should our bus pass. It's time to #UnlockTransportAccess Write to your MP: https://bit.ly/46Tx8kG

At Braille Translations exactly the same issue , our founder Ghow Ratnarajah faces exactly the same challenge trying to hold down a job as well as running a business as someone who has been registered blind since birth, life is challenging enough without being told that the TFL helpline will help you get home for your job at 11:30 at night on a busy winter night when most stations are no longer manned or there are insufficient staff to escort him to the platform. Or the one time I tried the TFl helpline to get me home to St Albans, they put me on a bus to Harlow!!! You cannot make it up!!