A Dundee advocacy group claims the city’s deaf community has been let down by the Scottish Fire and Rescue service.
The criticism came after a public consultation into the Dundee City Local Fire and Rescue Plan 2014-17 was not provided in a suitable format for the hard of hearing, according to Deaf Links.
Alana Trusty, the group’s manager, said deaf people “were not able to have any input” into the plans as a result.
Scottish Fire and Rescue service dispute this, arguing “the consultation document states that if anyone would like a copy of this document in a different format or a version in another language they were provided with the necessary contact details.”
But Mrs Trusty said: “Deaf people in Dundee have not been able to have equal access (to the consultation).
“There are lots of people within the Dundee deaf community who would not have been able to understand it.
“British Sign Language (BSL) is the deaf community’s first language English is actually their second language and this means the average reading age for the deaf community is nine, making a lot of the complex language in the report inaccessible to deaf people in Dundee.”
She said: “BSL is one of four indigenous languages in the UK, but the consolation was not offered in BSL, even though it was offered in Urdu, for instance.”
The group also questioned whether the plan should include a provision for deaf people and others who might have difficulty contacting the fire service on a traditional telephone.
In response, the fire service said they would forward the suggestion for consideration.
A spokesman for Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: “During the consultation process we were not aware of any specific requests for the Dundee Local Plan to be produced in a specific format.
“However, if anyone wishes to contact the service in relation to any area of our work or view any of our publications we are more than happy to engage positively with people.”