Article: Access to council services Article Body Our aim is to make our services more accessible and easier to use which means: information about our services needs to be more widely available and more accessible. some of our buildings need to be more accessible to customers. contacting the council should be simpler and more accessible to all customers. If you need information in another language or an alternative format, information leaflets usually include a telephone/contact number to request this. Interpretation and translation services Barnsley residents are increasingly drawn from different countries. In fact, in Barnsley, people speak more that 45 different languages. Some people who do not have English as their first language have chosen to live, work, visit the borough, and require advice or assistance from the council and its partners. With this in mind we offer an interpreting service to allow us to communicate with our customers quickly and easily in their own language. If you contact the council either in person or by telephone at any of our Barnsley Connect service centres, we can arrange for a three-way telephone conversation where interpreters accurately and securely pass on information between the customer and the council or partner representative. Using The Big Word, this can be provided in over 700 languages. If you have limited spoken English then please let the customer service staff know which language you would like to communicate in and what your enquiry is about. If your enquiry is more complex or will take quite a while to resolve we may need to book an interpreter to attend for appointments, meetings and interviews at another time to suit you. In some cases, where interpretation cannot give you all the information you need, you may need written information in your own language as well. We can arrange for letters and leaflets to be translated where necessary and send these direct to your home within a few days. British Sign Language The council can also provide interpretation in British Sign Language and other forms of communication support for deaf and hard of hearing people. If you need a Sign Language interpreter please let us know and we will arrange for one. The more notice you can give us the easier it will be for us to find one at a time that is convenient to you. Deaf people can also call the council using Sign Video Web Access, an online interpreting service, from their own home. This is a free service and can be accessed by clicking the button below and following the instructions on the SignVideo page. Accessible formats If you need information in a different format that is accessible to you then please let us know. We frequently arrange for letters and leaflets to be produced in accessible formats such as: Large print Braille Audio tape or cd Electronic (by email or on CD-rom) Easy Read We can usually arrange for these to be produced within two days and send them to you directly. Access to buildings Public areas in all of the councils buildings have been independently assessed as being accessible to disabled people apart from a limited number of circumstances where historic buildings cannot be fully adapted. All of our public buildings have also been surveyed for their disability access by Disabled Go. You can find details of the accessibility of any council buildings (and hundreds of other shops and services in Barnsley) by visiting our Disabled Go webpage or directly through the Disabled Go website. Many of our buildings also have facilities for baby-changing and for areas mothers to breast feed in privacy. Please note however that mothers are welcome to breast feed in public areas as well the breast feeding facilities are there to provide mothers with choice.