COALITION: Co-Producing Accessible Legal Information
The Co-Producing Accessible Legal Information (COALITION) Project was a collaboration between Rosie Harding from Birmingham Law School, Amanda Keeling of the University of Leeds, Sophie O’Connell of Wilsons Solicitors, Philipa Bragman and Andrew Lee from People First. We used facilitated co-production research workshops to explore barriers to access to legal services for people with learning disabilities, and to investigate how legal services could be made more accessible to disabled people with cognitive impairments.
There were two interlinked aims in this project: first, to model ethical co-production practice in academic research, and second, to understand the potential that accessible information holds for access to justice and access to legal services for disabled people with cognitive impairments. The core outcomes from the project are:
- An Accessible Research Toolkit to support academic research involving disabled people with cognitive impairments.
- A set of materials to support access to legal services for disabled people with cognitive impairments.
- Our Project Report, which includes priorities for accessible legal information and for future research in this area.
Download the COALITION Project Reports
Making Legal Services More Accessible: The COALITION Project Report is the full report from our research project.
In the report, we reflect on our experience of undertaking co-production research about accessibility in legal services, outline our key research findings, and make six core recommendations for improving the accessibility of research and legal services.
We have also produced an easy read report:
Why is Easy Read Important
Accessible Research Toolkit
One of the key outcomes from this project is an Accessible Research Toolkit. This free resource is for anyone who wants to include disabled people with cognitive impairments in their research. You can access the toolkit through links on this website.
Templates for Legal Service Providers
A second key outcome from this research is a set of easy read templates for use by legal service providers. We have produced:
- A template ‘Letter of Engagement’ which sets out the kind of information that would usually be found in a client care letter.
- An easy read letter that professional deputies can use to introduce themselves and the service they provide.
- An easy read guide to what a property and financial affairs deputy can do.
Find out more about our templates for Legal Service providers and how to use them.