AF&RS is committed to making its services
accessible to all sections of the community. In this area you
can find out about how we work to improve the accessibility of
fire safety information and ways of contacting us for the
Deaf Community.
It is estimated that 15% of the population has some
degree of deafness - that’s about 150,000 people in the Avon area,
of these people over 1,000 are British Sign Language
users.
Fire
safety messages in British Sign Language (BSL).
Avon Fire & Rescue Service (AF&RS) worked in partnership
with Deafstation to provide a series of BSL videos on fire
safety, contacting us and organising a Home Fire Safety Visit.
You can now view the NHS Swine Flu
Leaflet in BSL on the Department of Health's
website.
You can also find information about the
National Emergency Text Service.
If you are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired contacting
the emergency services can be difficult. You may find using text
messaging quicker and easier in an emergency.
The national 999 SMS service allows registered users to contact
the Police, Ambulance, HM Coastguard or Fire and Rescue Services
using text messaging.
Fire Safety Information in BSL
Here you can find
Fire safety messages in British Sign Language (BSL)
(external website)
Working in partnership with Deafstation, from the University of
Bristol, we aim to take fire safety messages to a wider audience.
Take a look around the site, where you can find BSL videos on
general fire safety, including planning an escape route and smoking
safely, plus you can use the site to learn some basic BSL.
Thanks to Carolyn Nabarro for her help with the videos
If you would like to contact Avon Fire &
Rescue, follow the link