From 1 August 2016 onwards, all organisations that provide NHS care and/or publicly-funded adult social care are legally required to follow the Accessible Information Standard:
“The Accessible Information Standard aims to make sure that people who have a disability, impairment or sensory loss get information that they can access and understand, and any communication support that they need from health and care services.”
Providers and systems suppliers implementing the MODS should allow “patients, service users, carers and parents with a disability, impairment or sensory loss to:
Be able to contact, and be contacted by, services in accessible ways, for example via email or text message.
Receive information and correspondence in formats they can read and understand, for example in audio, braille, easy read or large print.
Be supported by a communication professional at appointments if this is needed to support conversation, for example a British Sign Language interpreter.
Get support from health and care staff and organisations to communicate, for example to lip-read or use a hearing aid.”
More information on the standard is available here