|
Several initiatives
were undertaken by the Census Office is order to provide as much
assistance as possible to members of the public and minority groups
(such as those whose first language is not English) who required
help in completing their Census form. The primary initiatives were:
Help lines and
information
A
telephone help line was set up to answer queries and provide advice
about form completion. This included a text phone for the Deaf and a
special e-mail address for those preferring to use electronic media.
Both were manned between 8am and 8pm, seven days a week from the
middle of April to the end of June, at which point all Census forms
were requested to be returned. Additionally a Census publicity web
site was set up containing fact sheets and general Census
information as well as crucial contact information.
The Community Liaison
Programme
As
part of the Census Community Liaison Programme, Census office
contacted a number of community and voluntary sector groups to
inform them about the Census. The objectives were to:
 |
encourage
local communities to participate; |
|
ensure
that assistance is available to those may have difficulty in
completing their census form.
|
The
focus of the contacts made were the special needs groups, ethnic
communities and community groups. A number of initiatives to assist
these groups included the availability of a telephone Helpline, a
text phone for the deaf, Braille and large print information
leaflets and audio tapes for the visually impaired, signed videos,
translation leaflets in 8 languages and the provision of
interpreters for non-English speakers, should this prove necessary.
The leaflets provided are as follows
Census
Office also worked closely with representatives of the Irish
Traveller community and the homeless.
Help
from Enumerators
In
addition to these initiatives, Census field staff were asked to work
in partnership with representatives of the voluntary sector to
provide assistance to special needs groups where this was necessary.
To further assist those whose first language was not English, field
staff were provided with a language identity card which comprised a
simple paragraph in 8 languages so the householder could point to the
language they recognised and thus be sent the translation leaflets.
The
language identity card is provided in PDF format here.
|
