People and communities

Request a reasonable adjustment

We're committed to:

  • ensuring how we work doesn’t place disabled people at a disadvantage
  • removing barriers our customers face when accessing our services
  • making reasonable adjustments

Reasonable adjustments

If something is difficult to access, ask for a reasonable adjustment.

Find out how we consider each request for a reasonable adjustment on an individual basis.

Examples of common reasonable adjustments, which we already offer are:

  • delivering information in different formats, such as EasyRead, braille, audio, large print, coloured paper
  • supplying 'Reader Friendly' versions of key documents
  • translating or interpreting information into different languages, including braille
  • giving extra one-to-one support to use a service
  • arranging a single point of contact in a department
  • communicating via your representative or advocate
  • allowing more time than usual to send us information (except where there's a statutory deadline, we have no power to change)
  • using the telephone rather than written communication
  • contacting by email or telephone rather than printing letters
  • making face to face appointments to complete paper documents rather than telephone or digital services
  • offering special equipment such as an induction loop or screen reader
  • providing British Sign Language (BSL) video relay services
  • using plain English and avoiding jargon

Ask for a reasonable adjustment

You can ask us to consider a reasonable adjustment to how we provide you with services, in the following ways:

Help us to meet your needs by making your circumstances clear - tell us you would like to make a reasonable adjustment request, and:

  • let us know what service you need to access
  • tell us what’s causing a problem or difficultly
  • suggest how we can support you

We may suggest additional adjustments to help you continue getting the best out of our services.

Our response to requests for reasonable adjustments

We plan and design our services to be inclusive and will consider any request for a reasonable adjustment to help you access them.

The Equality Act does not define what is 'reasonable', but when you ask us for a reasonable adjustment we'll consider:

  • how effective the adjustment will be in preventing any disadvantage
  • the practicality of the adjustment, including whether it would disrupt our other activities unreasonably
  • the costs of making the adjustment and availability of resources, including external help

We are able to agree and deliver most reasonable adjustments with minimal delay.

In some cases, we may need to consider in more detail how best to overcome the barriers you've identified. We may seek advice from accessibility organisations on how best to support you.

There may be circumstances where we're unable to fully accommodate a request; where we're unable to make an adjustment, we will explain why.

Complaints about reasonable adjustments

We aim to provide a high standard of service, dealing with everyone in a way that's fair and free from discrimination.

If you’re unhappy with our response to a request for a reasonable adjustment, or with the adjustments made, you can:

Also see

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Team

West Offices, Station Rise, York, YO1 6GA

Telephone: 01904 551550

Comment on this page