Communication Works Both Ways: Promotion of Communication Access and the Communication Access Symbol

What is communication access?

Communication access refers to the availability of communication support strategies for people with communication disabilities. Communication access is about businesses and services being communication friendly and making it easier for people with communication disabilities to communicate. 

The Communication Bill of Rights (1992) and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (2007) are two independent documents that have been influential in formally recognizing access to communication as a basic human right. People with communication disabilities as well as those with cultural and language barriers, will benefit from communication access.

What is the communication access symbol?


The purpose of the communication access symbol is to visually identify businesses and services in the community that are willing and able to communicate effectively and successfully with a person with a communication disability.

Communication Access Symbol

Communication Access Symbol

What does this project aim to achieve?

The purpose of our project is to promote and facilitate communication access within the community.

Promotional materials

A range of promotional materials were developed to target different populations within the community to raise awareness of communication access and promote the Communication Access Symbol. The aim of these materials is to provide information regarding the Communication Access Symbol and help the target audience understand its role in the community. The promotional items include:

  • Bumper stickers - to promote the key concept of communication access and promote the accompanying website address as a source of more information
  • Posters - to be displayed in the health-care setting to target health-care professionals, people with communication disabilities, their carers and the general public.
  • Brochures - to be an accompaniment to the poster to be distributed in the health-care setting provide information about the role of the Communication Access Symbol and the need for a Communication Access Symbol and allow the reader to reflect on their own communication accessibility

Download promotional materials

Communication Access Website

A website was designed to be uploaded on www.scopevic.org.au. The major aim of these webpages is to:

  • explain the Communication Access Symbol and what it means when it is displayed in businesses and services
  • allow businesses and services to reflect on their own communication accessibility using a communication access self-checklist
  • provide businesses and services with information about how to have the Communication Access Symbol in their workplace as well as potential benefits of having the Communication Access Symbol
  • promote businesses and services that have been awarded with a Communication Access Symbol
  • be a central and accessible location where people with communication disabilities, their carers or Speech Pathologists can download and print communication cards. These were also developed by the students.

Watch this space! A link will be placed here once the webpage is uploaded on www.scopevic.org.au 

Communication Access Cards

Communication access cards were designed for people with communication disabilities and their communication partners.

The aim of the communication cards is to:

  • Provide people with communication disabilities with a quick and simple tool to explain their preferred communication strategies to the service provider.
  • Reduce the opportunity barriers preventing people with communication disabilities from accessing information and services and participating in the community.
  • Educate and empower communication partners by providing them with suggested strategies to implement that will allow them to communicate more effectively with people with communication disabilities.

Three cards have been created: one for receptive language disabilities, one for expressive language disabilities and one for both receptive and expressive language disabilities.  The content of the cards explains what aspects of communication the person with a communication disability finds challenging and suggests strategies that can be used to enhance communication interactions with unfamiliar people.

Three sizes of the cards have been developed (Business card size, A5 size, A4 size). The cards will be available for download on this webpage (see below) and the communication access webpage on Scope’s website (once this goes live). A person with a communication disability, their carer or Speech Pathologist can print the appropriate card for their need and follow the instructions provided to produce them.  This means that anyone who needs the cards can easily access them free of charge.

Download communication access cards


Expressive communication access card:


Receptive communication access card:


Receptive and expressive communication access card:

Authorship and Acknowledgements:

This project was produced by 4th year Bachelor of Speech Pathology students (La Trobe University):

Amelia Lober, Clare Morris, I-Shen Lim, Kylie Sherwell, Lauren Chan and Yvette Madden

Under the supervision of:
Hilary Johnson and Karen Bloomberg.

Acknowledgements:
The authors would like to thank all those who contributed to the creation of this project. Special thanks to our supervisors - Hilary and Karen, for their support and guidance throughout the year.  We would also like to extend our gratitude to those from the Communication Resource Centre at Scope Victoria who provided valuable assistance and feedback throughout the development process.