Accessible Communications

Irish Remote Interpreting Service (IRIS)

The Irish Remote Interpreting Service, or IRIS for short, is now available in our public offices where an online Irish Sign Language (ISL) interpreter can be booked, free of charge, to interpret for members of the Deaf community through Zoom. 

This service ensures that Fingal County Council is providing free Irish Sign Language services to the public under the provisions of the Irish Sign Language Act 2017. 

Bookings are in 22-minute slots and IRIS recommends at least one week’s notice where possible to ensure the availability of an ISL interpreter. 

The service is available Monday to Friday during usual office hours. 

To make a booking for a member of the public, Click here - or alternatively please visit www.slis.ie/iris/ and scroll down to ‘Book an Appointment’. 

The email address entered in the booking form will receive the Zoom appointment link. If a staff member has been requested for, please inform them of the appointment request first for their approval and availability prior to entering their email address on the form and selecting a date/time. Confirm the appointment details with the Deaf ISL client. 

If you encounter any issues in making a booking, please contact IRIS on 0761078440 or email [email protected] for assistance. 

  • Complies with relevant disability and equality legislation, ie. Irish Sign Language Act 2017, Disability Act 2005, Equal Status Act 2000 
  • Contributes to social inclusion and equality 
  • Improves access to public services 
  • Free of charge 

There is a difference between ‘Deaf’ and ‘deaf’ – the Deaf community refers to people who have been deaf all their lives, and who use ISL as their first language (over 5,000 people in Ireland use ISL as their first language). 

Irish Sign Language Service at Fingal County Council

JAM Card

Since 2022 Fingal Libraries are officially JAM Card© Friendly, meaning Library staff are fully-trained to recognise and support any member of the public who has a JAM Card or the JAM Card app. JAM Card© was created in 2012 by NOW Group participants, with learning difficulties and autism, who wanted a discreet way of communicating to others that they need ‘Just A Minute’ (JAM) of time / assistance in certain situations.

Read more here.

 

Recite Me:

The fingal.ie website has a discreet accessibility tool which can help visitors to our website in a number of ways. Recite Me, labelled as ‘Accessibility Tools’ at the top of our website, is an assistive technology toolbar which has several aids to support anyone who is attempting to read, browse or search our website. Some of the main tools include:

  1. Text-to-Speech: Highlighted text can be read aloud ( over a hundred languages available)
  2. Change Language: Text can be changed into any language of your choice (over a hundred languages available)
  3. Font size: The size of the website font can be increased or decreased to a size that suits you
  4. Font style: Font style can be changed as appropriate to you
  5. On-Screen Ruler: Use an on-screen ruler to more easily follow bodies of text or sentence-by-sentence reading
  6. Screen Mask: Can be used to only show parts of the screen only for increased focus and clarity
  7. Colour Theme: Change the existing colour of the webpage to any colour of your choice