Effective Communication with the Public: A Toolkit

Create Action Plan

Accessibility: is the communication accessible to our target audience?

Cases:

NAO: HM Revenue & Customs: Helping individuals understand and complete their tax forms; HC 452 Session 2006-07, paragraph 8:
The Department offers specialist help for people with disabilities or whose first language is not English. The availability of these services is set out on the Department’s stationery but they are not prominently advertised on its website and the forms we examined. The Department’s website does not meet Cabinet Office guidelines on accessibility which aim to ensure that key groups including blind or partially sighted users can access information.

NAO: HM Revenue & Customs: Helping individuals understand and complete their tax forms; HC 452 Session 2006-07, paragraph 10:
Since 2003 the Department has improved the main forms and other information taxpayers use. This has included introducing shorter forms for people with simple tax affairs and simplifying information on how individuals’ tax codes and statements of tax due have been calculated. Our review found that most forms are relatively straightforward to complete but on occasions, some users found it difficult to understand terminology, carry out calculations and follow the sequencing of questions. The Department is currently improving the main income tax self assessment form and the inheritance tax form. We found that some guidance requires a reading age of 16 to 17 years old to understand, whereas less than half of the adult population reach this level.