A crip on my shoulder

I get really cheesed when I get official letters that tell me that this letter-form-information booklet-whatever is also available in large-print format.

Why should I get annoyed at knowing that there are accessible forms of this document that are mine for the asking?

Why should I get so irritated at government and council departments and other organisations finally realising that visually-impaired people have special needs, and taking steps to meet those needs?

Well, it’s very simple … how do you think they invariably tell me that I can have large print?

You guessed it … IN SMALL PRINT!

In the same size print as the rest of the letter, they tell me that I can have large print.

If I could read the small print to know that I had the option of having large print, I wouldn’t need to ask for large print; I’d be able to read the whole damn letter-form-whatever in the original format.

They might as well tell me – in Sanskrit or Egyptian hieroglyphics – that I can have the letter in English if I want.

If I can’t access the information to know that it’s also available in alternative format, how the hell am I supposed to know that I can ask for that alternative format?

I notice that, when they say that the letter-form-whatever is available in other languages, they always put a line in that language, presumably telling people in their own language that they can have the whole thing in that language if they need it.

But not the visually impaired! We’re only allowed to be given this information in a way that we can’t sodding well access.

Don’t people think? Don’t they realise that, if we can’t read small print, we can’t read the “you-can-have-this-in-large-print”?

Why don’t they put this line IN large print, and give us a sporting chance of actually being able to read it?