12 minutes
A communication-access review you can run Review one interaction for communication access and produce one change.
What you’ll be able to do Complete a communication-access review of one interaction and produce one change with a named owner. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: What is the finding? Draft Communication-access review for your work, including method established and written down, support in place, who the conversation was with. What the person leaves with Communication access is usually reviewed as a question about the conversation: was there an interpreter, did the worker speak to the person. Those matter. So does what the person takes away. A conversation that went well followed by a document the person cannot read, a letter in a language they do not use, or a voicemail for a person who does not hear, is an interaction that ended in a communication failure. The review counts both halves.
The five questions Was the person's method established before the content began? Was it written down?
Was the right support in place: a qualified interpreter, the device, the board, enough time?
Who was the conversation with? Did the worker look at the person, speak in first person, and avoid side conversations?
How long did the worker wait? Were sentences finished, subjects changed, answers given for the person?
What did the person leave with, in what form, and can they use it?
Communication-access review One page that records how one interaction handled method, support, address, waiting and what the person left with.
Method established and written down Yes or no; where recorded
Support in place Interpreter, device, board, time
Who the conversation was with The person, or someone else
Waiting Sentences finished, subjects changed, answers given for the person
What the person left with Form, language, usable or not
Run it on one interaction and change one thing about the next.
Browse and download only. Staff notes are not typed or saved on this page.
Download this published draft Count the output as part of the interaction What you can change You control whether a written summary in a usable form is part of the standard sequence or an afterthought. Making it standard removes the most common failure at the end of otherwise good meetings.
What to watch for Do not let a person leave with a document they cannot use. The document is where the next steps are, and they now do not have them.
Your next step For the next interpreted or device-supported meeting, prepare the usable summary before the meeting starts.
Usable, for this person, means A Deaf person who uses sign language
A signed video summary, or plain-language written English if they read it well; ask which. English may be a second language.
A person who reads a language other than English
A translated summary, by a qualified translator, in the language they read. Not a machine-translated document handed over unchecked.
A person who does not read
An audio recording, a picture-supported summary, or a call to a person they choose who will go through it with them.
A person who uses a device
The summary loaded onto the device or sent in a form the device can read, so the person can refer to it themselves.
Carry this forward The review asks whether the method was established, whether the right support was in place, who the conversation was with, how long the listener waited, and what the person left with in a form they could use.
Most interactions fail at least one of these, and the most common failure is waiting.
Written material the person cannot use is a communication failure as much as an unbooked interpreter.
A list of the review's questions, an artifact, a scenario decision and a knowledge check.
Run the review on one interaction this week and change one thing about the next.
Browse and download only. Course notes are not typed or saved on this page.
Reset this lesson
Previous lesson Back to course Carry this into practice Presuming competence, the methods people use to communicate when speech is not available or not enough, what it takes to work with an interpreter or a communication device well, and how to make what you say and write usable.
Return to the experience: What did you notice or try, whose perspective informed it, and what would you keep or adjust?
Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
