The year’s first edition of Easy News has been published featuring exclusive interviews with the Minister of State for Disabled People Mark Harper MP, Shadow Disabilities Minister Kate Green MP and Liberal Democrat Rt. Hon. Paul Burstow MP.
The 13th issue of Easy News sees some of the UR Consultants that work on Easy News ask the MPs for their views on how to make it easier for people with disabilities to vote, about what changes they’d like to see implemented by the next Government, why they wanted to be MPs and many other issues.
Diane Lightfoot, Director of Communications and Fundraising, said: “This month’s Easy News focuses primarily on politics at a time when the country is looking ahead to the upcoming election. We wanted to level the playing field for people with learning disabilities to enable them to engage with the key talking points; empowering them to speak directly to politicians, asking the questions that matter to them about issues that affect them.
“UR Consultants, who translate Easy News, always work hard at translating stories, and this edition provided a great opportunity for them to be news creators and produce the main feature themselves.”
Easy News’ accessible content supports the charity’s Every Vote Counts campaign, which aims to make politics accessible to all, particularly people with learning disabilities. The campaign has produced easy read guides to voting and is urging all political parties to communicate more accessibly, in order to ensure that anyone with a learning disability takes the opportunity to use their legal right to vote in the General Election.
This edition of also covers recent major news stories including the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, the A and E crisis and the appointment of England’s first female bishop, maintaining the magazine’s commitment to varied and unbiased reporting.
Easy News was launched two years ago as the world’s first easy read news magazine and is translated by UR Consultants, a group of people with learning disabilities employed by United Response to rework news stories into easy words and explanatory images.
To download the 13th edition of Easy News, go to: www.unitedresponse.org.uk/easy-news
