Accessible communication guidance for water businesses

To help water businesses communicate with customers in an accessible and effective manner, we have developed a new set of resources. In partnership with the Melbourne Social Equity Institute we developed:

• a 14-page guide on how to make processes and communications more accessible, and improve the support and assistance available to customers
• two sample Easy English documents that show what a bill explainer and summary customer charter could look like.

These can be found under the resources tab on this page.

Effective communication is essential to building relationships between customers and water businesses, and for inclusive consumer protection. Communication needs to be accessible for all customers so they can understand their water bills, rights and responsibilities. Customers must also have opportunities to get assistance or support where they need it. This is particularly important given water is an essential service.

Research by the Melbourne Social Equity Institute and the commission showed information provided to water consumers can be hard to understand. For example:

• bills may be complex, crowded, or hard to comprehend
• finding information about what to do when a customer has a problem can be difficult
• phone communication is not always the preferred method of contact for customers.

As a result, resources have been developed based on:

• research conducted with people with cognitive disabilities and their representative organisations, including in essential services sectors.
• expert advice from Francesca Lee (Brain Injury Matters) on the content of the guide for retailers.
• two sample Easy English documents produced by Scope and tested with consumers.

Got questions?

For further information please contact us.