Our aim is to make our services more accessible and easier to use for people who may have language, hearing or mobility issues.
Interpretation and translation services
If you contact us either by telephone or in person at one of our offices. We can arrange for a three way telephone chat where interpreters. They'll accurately and securely pass on details between you and us or our partners. If you've limited spoken English then please let the customer service staff know. Tell them which language you'd like to communicate in.
If your enquiry is more complex or will take quite a while to sort out. Then we may need to book an interpreter for an appointments, meetings and interviews.
In some cases, where interpretation can't give you all the details you need. You may need written details in your own language as well. We can arrange for letters and leaflets to be translated and send them to your home.
British Sign Language (BSL)
If you need a sign language interpreter, please contact us. The more notice you can give us, the easier it will be for us to find one at a time that suits you.
You can also arrange for someone to give you a video call back with a BSL interpreter. Find out more about BSL video relay service.
Accessible formats
If you need details in a different format that is accessible to you then please contact us. We can arrange for any details on our website, letters or leaflets to be made accessible. We can send them to you, such as:
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large print
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Braille
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audio tape or CD
- easy read
There's more details on our website about this:
Read more about using our website, including its features.
AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.
Access to buildings
Public areas in all our 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.
We've worked with the NHS and AccessAble to write an access guide to Barnsley facilities for disabled people. The guide contains lots of useful information, including phone numbers and web links, for council buildings, libraries, tourist attractions and some local shops. All the places featured in the guide are rated for their accessibility. This means you can use the AccessAble website to check whether a building, venue or route is accessible. It also shows the facilities available there.
Many of our buildings also have facilities for baby changing. Also areas for mothers to breast feed in privacy. Please note however that mothers are welcome to breast feed in public areas. Breast feeding facilities are there to provide mothers with a choice.
Relay UK
BT operate a national telephone relay service known as Relay UK. The service is for deaf, deafened, hard of hearing, deafblind and speech-impaired people. It provides a link between any textphone user and an operator and it's a discreet and confidential service.
To use the service dial 18001 followed by the full telephone number of the service you need from your textphone.
The call will be answered by a Relay UK operator who is brought into the call. They'll help you with your call and act as a communicator for the service required. The service is funded by BT and calls are charged at the local rate.
Adult safeguarding SAFE text service
Deaf or hearing impaired customers can report adult abuse, harm or neglect by text using our SAFE text service.