Case Study: Bromford Housing Group
Bromford Housing Group has removed barriers by providing information and advice to visually impaired customers in alternative formats. Read on to find out the solutions that A2i was able to offer, to help meet their needs...
Customer: Bromford Housing Group
Services: Transcription into Large Print, Braille and tape
Bromford Housing Group is an industry leading Housing Association in the UK, providing affordable housing and associated care and support services to customers throughout Central England.
Bromford also leads the market in supported housing, helping young families and vulnerable people to live independently. Bromford Carinthia, Fosseway, HomeZone and Bromford Homes are members of Bromford Housing Group along with BMS Property Care.
As part of its customer service offerings, the Group regularly sends out documents such as letters and magazines to its customers. A number of Bromfords customers are visually impaired, and the Group needs to ensure that those customers have the same access to information as everyone else. It is important to Bromford to provide a service that fits people and therefore customers with sight problems receive all necessary materials in the format that suits them best, at the same time as their sighted customers, to a uniform quality, wherever they live.
To ensure all of their literature supports the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), Bromford actively seeks to offer as many alternative formats as possible in order to reach their entire diverse customer base.
In 2005, Bromford Housing Group turned to A2i Transcription Services Limited for advice, as the company has an established reputation for high-quality transcription solutions with short turn-around times and complementary, all encompassing services.
The Group was looking to develop a long term relationship with a supplier that can create alternative formats of any kind of document on a regular basis, as well as manage the distribution.
A2i transcribe text to alternative formats to give visually impaired people equal access to information, and also provides Braille and tactile signage, computer access tools and customer access solutions for organisations across the UK.
To enable Bromford Housing Group to reach their visually impaired customers, A2i set up a service whereby Bromford supplies them with a customer letter; A2i transcribes it and posts it directly to the customer. This service guarantees visually impaired customers have the same access to information as sighted people, in a timely manner.
Newsletters are transcribed to Large Print, sent back to Bromford, for them to mass produce and distribute to customers, enabling the Group to save money and react quickly to ad-hoc requests of extra copies.
Alex Corns, PR Communications Officer for Bromford, comments: "Working with A2i is just like working with an extra team. The processes are so streamlined that I sometimes forget they are a supplier! We send the raw texts of our letters, newsletters and other customer communications to A2i, and we know that the transcribed documents will be returned to us within the promised time and at a very high quality standard. This doesn't only give us peace of mind, it also saves us a lot of money and time, and most of all it provides a highly important service to our partially sighted and blind customers. Our customers feel that we're meeting their communication needs, they have access to all the information they need, and stay loyal to us."
For more information about A2i's Braille, Large Print and Tape transcription services please visit our website or contact us:
Email: info@a2i.co.uk
Tel: 01179 70 70 90
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