CALL Scotland - Communication, Access, Literacy and Learning

Communicating is not easy for everyone. I’ve been speaking to Sally Millar who has been working with CALL Scotland for over 20 years to improve conditions for people with communication support needs.

CALL Scotland (Communication, Access, Literacy and Learning) is a small centre with a national (Scotland) remit that operates out of The University of Edinburgh . The CALL team provides services and carries out research and development for people with communication support needs. One CALL development that has been widely taken up both at home and internationally is Personal Communication Passports.

What’s it all about?

Well I’m glad you asked. A Communication Passport is a short ‘album’ drawing together highly personalised information about an individual who cannot easily speak for him or herself. This is not a medical file; a Passport stays with its owner. It is put together by/with /for the owner by those who know them best and notes things that are most important to the person, such as their interests, likes and dislikes, key people in their life, etc. It will include tips on when and how best to assist the person, in all ways, but especially regarding communication. “It’s not a professional document” Sally is keen to stress; it’s about quality of life.” “Passports are written in simple jargon-free language, and include photos. They help staff get to know a person, can prevent frustrating or difficult situations, and can help to ensure successful interactions.”

The background

The idea first occurred to Sally in1991 when she made a Communication Passport for a lady who had had a stroke and was isolated and depressed as other people were avoiding her because of communication difficulties. Following that, Sally says “It gradually dawned on me that Passports could be used to help people with wide variety of different conditions”. Communication Passports are particularly useful to people who have complex or multiple disabilities who depend heavily on others to interpret their needs and communication attempts. They can be particularly useful in settings like care homes with large staff numbers, shift-working, and a high staff turnover: people new to the job or unfamiliar with certain residents, and short of time, may struggle to understand and communicate with them. “The head of a care home will have confidential notes on residents, but these will be locked away in a filing cabinet, and will not be available to day to day carers. A Passport could make all the difference - for example, a new carer coming on duty could quickly read a page or two and then know what the resident’s grand-children are called, what her favourite TV shows are, and be reminded to give choices of two or three options as the person’s word-finding problems makes it difficult for her to independently ask for what she needs.”

So how successful have they been?

Well truth be told; very. Personal Communication Passports are now widely used in schools, child and adult services, hospitals and care settings. Speech and language therapists and family members are often particularly enthusiastic champions of Passports; “These are people who are acutely aware of how difficult it can be when a person can’t speak” and they consequently appreciate the value of Communication Passports.

But more than that, Passports seem to have been adopted far and wide, with Sally saying “I’ve received heart-warming emails from Poland, Ukraine, Japan, etc. Passports seem to have really filtered through”. Although we live in the age of technology, Communication Passports are cheap and easy to make and are effectively used in societies with fewer resources

But wait! There’s more

Personal Communication Passports is far from being the only success story that CALL Scotland can boast of. Recently CALL has worked with the Scottish Quaifications Agency to develop Digital Exams, which allow learners who struggle to either read exam papers or to write answers (or both) without the help of a reader or scribe, to do the exam on a computer, independently. This is a big step on from just typing answers on a computer, which has long been possible; Digital Exams means that the exam paper itself appears on screen , can be read out loud by a synthetic voice if necessary, then the learner fills in the answer box onscreen.

CALL Scotland has also worked with developers CereProc and with Scottish Government to make Scottish-sounding synthetic voices widely available.

CALL pioneered the ‘Books for All’ programme that strives to make reading materials more accessible for people who struggle to read books or other written texts in a conventional way. ‘Print disability’ does not only mean people who are blind or visually impaired, but also includes people with physical disabilities who can’t turn pages, people with dyslexia, and people with learning difficulties and limited literacy.

Raising awareness

Sally is eager to raise awareness of ‘communication support needs’, which affect many thousands of people of all ages, with all sorts of different conditons. Sally points out that “Communication difficulties is a ‘hidden disability’. But life is really difficult for someone who can’t decipher announcements in public places, or can’t see or read a timetable or scribbled menu; or can’t easily ask for, or understand, directions or for help.”

“It’s not about a ‘disability’ suffered by an individual, it’s about what society in general can do to remove barriers to communication and to support people who may find it a challenge to communicate.”

“People should be more aware of communication support needs. We could all help if we were more aware and more patient”.

Sally goes on to say that communication support can be as simple as “being aware that some people understand better if language is kept short and simple, and if they they are given plenty time to respond. Equally, taking in complicated written information can be difficult for many people , so using pictures can help a lot.

Although there is still plenty of ground to be covered, Sally firmly believes that awareness of communication support needs - and of the work done by CALL Scotland - are gradually gaining recognition. “People do have a broader understanding of the importance of communication”.

Further information is available on the CALL Scotland website.

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