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Accessibility at Ruils

As a D/deaf and Disabled People’s Organisation, we are passionate about doing as much as we can, with the funding and resources available to us, to help you access our services and activities. We are committed to being inclusive and use our lived experience of Disability to inform our approach to reasonable adjustments and the support we provide clients.

We know there is always more we can do and are committed to learning and improving the support we provide. We welcome feedback from clients and our community; if you think we are getting it right or have suggestions of ways we can be better, please get in touch.

A woman holding a laptop with a webpage pulled up on it. She is standing in an office and there are potted plants and shelves behind her.

Our website

Image of a young man and young woman sitting at a meeting room table. Front of them they each have a black laptop and the woman is taking notes in a notepad. Behind them are two images of blue skies and clouds and field of flowers.

Our offices

Image of Wellbeing Coordinator, Euan, sitting in front of a cafe with a client taking his blood pressure at community outreach.

Reasonable adjustments

Two women, Dom and Jenny, standing holding a Hidden Disabilities Sunflower poster that reads "Not every disability is visible, some are hidden". Both are wearing green clothes.

Our community

Our website

Although we have done our best to design and build a website that is inclusive, we have also added accessibility tools to make sure the site works for all users.

Please click the Accessibility Tools icon on the right-hand side of your screen to view a set of tools that can help you navigate our website. It is a black square with a yellow symbol of a person on it. Click on the symbol to adjust the way clickable links are shown and adjust the contrast.

image of the access toolbar that sits on the website which includes increasind and decreasing text size, greyscale, high contrast and link underline options

Our website is also compatible with universal screen readers and all of the images on our website have ALT text.

  • Grayscale Mode – enables you to strip away distracting colours and focus on the essence of the content. This may be beneficial for individuals with colour blindness or sensitivity to bright hues.
  • High Contrast – may help users with contrast sensitivity to navigate pages. High contract will amplify the distinction between text and background and ensure that the content stands out.
  • Underlined Links – helps to easily distinguish links and make it easier for you to follow pathways to the information you need.
  • Browser Zoom – if you need to magnify the content on our website, you can easily do this by adjusting the size with the increase text option. You can also adjust zoom in your browser’s settings. This will make text, images and all other content larger or smaller, depending on your needs. You can use keyboard shortcuts to zoom in and out as well. On a Mac it’s COMMAND + or -, and CONTROL + or – on a Windows PC.

We know that not everyone is able to access information online or navigate websites. If you or someone you know would like information in a different format, please contact our team and we will be happy to help.

Our offices

We have included information with photos on our contact us page about our two office locations, one in Teddington and one in Wandsworth. Both offices are accessible for wheelchair and mobility scooter users, have accessible loos and there are lifts in both buildings as an alternative to stairs. We know that access isn’t just physical, so if there are other ways we can make your visit more accessible, please let us know.

If you are visiting us for an appointment, please make the staff member aware of any access needs you may have so we can do our best to accommodate you. Our offices are open by appointment only, so please get in touch with our team or the person supporting you to arrange a time for you to visit them.

Reasonable adjustments

We cannot anticipate the specific needs of everyone who wants to use our services, but we do our best to make reasonable adjustments where possible. This could include, but is not limited to:

  • Providing an interpreter, including British Sign Language, or palantypist.
  • Setting up live captions during online calls.
  • Giving self descriptions when we introduce ourselves.
  • Communicating via your preferred specific channels, e.g. WhatsApp, email, text, letter or phone.
  • Arranging to meet in person if possible.
  • Selecting wheelchair accessible venues with accessible loos for any events we host.
  • Providing comprehensive accessibility information in advance for any events we host.

We require advance notice of any reasonable adjustments that you need to access our services so that we can either arrange them or let you know if we are unable to.

As a charity, unfortunately, we do not have access to unlimited funds or staff, and we are not always able to help everyone. But please always ask if you are not sure, and we will try to find a way to make things work if we possibly can.

Our community

Ruils is a part of a network of D/deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations in London led by and for Disabled people and a member of the DPO Forum England. We are committed to working with our community and other organisations in our service areas, across London and the UK to make the world we live in more accessible for all. We are stronger working together.

Ruils is a member of the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Lanyard scheme, helping to increase visibility of and support for those with hidden health conditions and needs who are Disabled by the world we live in.

We work with a network of organisations across the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames as a part of the Dementia Friendly Richmond collective to make sure our services are inclusive for those with Dementia and their carers.

Ruils is a Disability Confident Employer, committed to employing, upskilling and fostering Disabled talent.

  • The DPO Forum England logo. Teal writing and a purple scribble with a wheelchair user icon inside of a speech bubble.
  • Sunflower hidden disabilities logo. Hidden is in green text and disabilities is in yellow text. Next to the words there is a sunflower on a green background.
  • The Dementia Friendly Richmond logo. Light blue text on a white background with light blue and yellow flowers on the lefthand side of the logo.
  • Disability Confident Employer logo with a purple outline and a green, purple, pink and blue icons next to it.