Hospital Accessibility: What the Accessible Information Standard Means for Getting to an Appointment

A hospital appointment is the visit where accessibility matters most and where the information is usually worst: a letter with a postcode, a car park name and "please arrive ten minutes early". For a patient who uses a wheelchair, cannot read small print or has a learning disability, the letter is where the visit succeeds or fails. Three sets of rules say it has to do better, and they fit together neatly with a visitor map.

The Accessible Information Standard

The Accessible Information Standard has applied to every organisation providing NHS care or adult social care in England since August 2016, under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. It was reviewed and republished on 30 June 2025. The standard asks providers to identify a patient's information and communication needs, record them, flag them in the record, share them with other providers with consent, and act on them, with the 2025 version adding a sixth step, review, and a self-assessment framework.

Acting on a need means the information the patient receives has to be in a format they can use: large print, easy read, audio, braille, or a format that works with a screen reader. The appointment letter is information. So is the "how to find us" page and the map at the bottom of it. A map that only exists as a picture, in a letter or a PDF, is the part of the appointment that the standard says cannot be left as a picture.

The Equality Act underneath it

The standard sits on top of the Equality Act 2010, and the NHS England page is explicit that service providers "must anticipate the needs of disabled people and make appropriate reasonable adjustments". The EHRC Services Code names parking areas, entrances, kerbs, lifts and toilets among the physical features a provider must deal with, and lists accessible-format information among the auxiliary aids. For a hospital that means the step-free route from the Blue Badge bays to the clinic is part of the service, and publishing it before the visit is the anticipatory duty in practice. What the Equality Act asks of your visitor information goes through the duty line by line.

Parking, and saying so

The NHS patient, visitor and staff car parking principles say that disabled patients and visitors, meaning holders of a valid Blue Badge, get free parking for the duration of their attendance at or visit to the hospital. The same principles say charges and concessions "should be well publicised including at car park entrances", on the hospital website and on patient letters where appropriate. That is a wayfinding instruction as much as a parking one: the letter should say which car park has the Blue Badge bays nearest the department, how far it is and whether the route is level.

Changing Places and the facilities list

The 2020 amendment to Approved Document M lists hospitals among the buildings that should include a Changing Places toilet in new work. Whether a hospital has one, where it is and how to get the key is exactly the kind of fact a patient needs before the visit, along with the accessible toilets on each floor, the lifts and which floors they serve, the quiet waiting areas and the hearing loops at reception. See Changing Places toilets for the thresholds and the national map.

What the route needs to show

NHS England's own wayfinding guidance for healthcare facilities dates from 2005 and is about signs on the building. The patient's phone is now the sign they read first, so the route needs the same discipline: start at the car park the letter names, show the Blue Badge bays and the setting-down point, take the step-free way to the right entrance by name, and go on to the department with the lifts marked. Each step should be text as well as a line on a map, so a screen reader can read it and so the patient can ask a relative to read it aloud. On the day the entrance that is closed or the lift that is out of order should change on the page, not in a notice on the door.

This is what the Signposted hospital template does: car park to clinic or ward step by step, with the appointment time and visiting hours attached, and the accessible wayfinding features (step-free routes, read-aloud directions, no app) built to WCAG 2.2 AA so the page itself meets the standard it is helping the trust meet. Hospital wayfinding: getting patients to the right entrance covers the letter and the QR code that connect the two.

General information, not legal advice. The standard and the code of practice are the documents to quote.

Questions people ask

Does the Accessible Information Standard cover directions to the hospital?

It covers the information a service gives a patient, which includes the appointment letter and what it says about getting there. The standard requires the information to be in a format the patient can use. A map image in a letter does not meet that for a blind patient; a link to a page that reads the route aloud does.

Is hospital parking free for Blue Badge holders?

In England the NHS car parking principles say disabled patients and visitors, defined as holders of a valid Blue Badge, get free parking for the duration of their attendance. The principles also say the charges and concessions should be well publicised, including on the website and on patient letters where appropriate.

Does a hospital need a Changing Places toilet?

Approved Document M as amended in 2020 lists hospitals among the building types that should provide a Changing Places toilet in new buildings and major changes of use. Existing hospitals are not compelled, but many provide one, and the visitor information should say where it is.