Sensory Services
This page aims to help people with sight impairment or who are d/Deaf to access health care and will be updated with new resources as they become available. Thank you to Hertfordshire County Council for providing these resources.
The term sight impairment, also known as visual impairment, refers to someone who is blind or partially sighted. It does not refer to someone who is short-sighted or long-sighted.
d/Deaf refers to someone who is Deaf, deafened or hard of hearing. The term d/Deaf includes people who are Deaf (British Sign Language users), who were either born deaf or became deaf in early childhood and use BSL as their first preferred language. The focus of this term is on the ‘D’ in Deaf to indicate that they have their own sign language, culture and identity. D/deaf is used to describe people who are Deaf (Sign language User) and deaf (including people who are hard of hearing or deafened, losing hearing later in life, but have English as the first language and may lipread and/or use their hearing aids). Deafblindness is regarded as a separate unique disability. Individuals are regarded as deafblind if their combined sight and hearing loss causes difficulties with communication, access to information and mobility.
The resources listed on this page here aim to provide clear information in an accessible way. Thank you to Hertfordshire County Council for providing these resources.
You can find Hertfordshire's Sensory Services Strategy 2020-2023 using link: https://bit.ly/3jWr4R6. The vision of the Sensory Strategy is to 'provide services of excellence, to support deaf, deafblind and sight impaired people of all ages to be independent, to have choice and control and to participate fully in society.'
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Accessibility COVID19: https://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/accessibilitycovid
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Pathway of Services for children and young people with sensory needs- Toolkit for navigating sensory services in Hertfordshire: www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/sensorypathway
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SignVideo –If you are deaf customer and wish to contact Hertfordshire County Council, please contact them using SignVideo, our live BSL video interpreting service (Monday to Friday, 8am – 6pm)
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Deaf Enhanced Support Services (Primary Health Care) - Providing online remote interpreting access within non-emergency health care settings, clear two-way access to communication between Deaf BSL users and health care professionals available free via DA Languages
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Accessibility COVID19: https://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/accessibilitycovid
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Hertfordshire Sensory Strategy 2020-23: The vision of the Sensory Strategy is to “provide services of excellence, to support deaf, deafblind and sight impaired people of all ages to be independent, to have choice and control and to participate fully in society.”
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Pathway of Services for children and young people with sensory needs- Toolkit for navigating sensory services in Hertfordshire: www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/sensorypathway
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NHS Accessible Information Standard – making our health and social care information accessible for people with learning disabilities, sensory loss and/or other communication needs.
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Sensory Factsheets for children and adults with Sensory Needs including Deaf and hard of hearing directory (PDF) and Factsheets available in BSL
The video below gives an introduction to SignVideo, a service appointed by Herts County Council (HCC) to provide a British Sign Language (BSL) Video Relay Service for deaf residents.
The service allows deaf people to communicate with hearing people using a smartphone, tablet or computer via a BSL interpreter in real time, enabling users to have equal access to information and advice through our Customer Service Centre.
If there are topics you would like to see included, or there are other resources you think we should consider including, please email enquiries.hvccg@nhs.net