‘Councillors need to grasp the nettle of increasing digital exclusion and reform the way the council provides information to visually and hearing impaired residents’

• CAMDEN Council have revised their website.

My initial incursions cautiously suggest an improvement. Freedom of information – the only way to get the council to divulge its secrets – is easier to find.

Parking permits are as easily accessible as before.

Compare this with Birmingham Council’s botched IT venture which, in part, led to its bankruptcy.

But what about the estimated 25 per cent of our residents who do not have full access to the internet?

How do they get their information? Indeed information accessibility is a major problem in Camden, not least of all for people with disabilities.

Three months ago Camden Disability Action organised a visit of members to the newly-refurbished town hall, thanks to Councillor Larraine Revah, chair of the disability oversight panel.

Our report suggested, among other things, larger print for notices for the visually impaired, speech-to-text apps on staff mobile phones for the hearing impaired, and volunteers to help visitors with mobility issues.

So far as I know there’s no progress. As to the new internet, libraries need to increase accessibility to laptops and staff assistance.

Other organisations present problems for the increasing numbers of the digitally challenged. But for many of us it is the council that has the major impact on our lives.

Councillors need to grasp the nettle of increasing digital exclusion and reform the way the council provides information to visually and hearing impaired residents.

MICK FARRANT, NW5