Posters. Accessible written content

In the last blog I talked about the importance of the first impression.

Your first impression is the visual impression.

Irrespective of whether you creating a poster or document or brochure some other things are just as important.

• Consistency - where are the images consistently?
• Predictability - where do I go next/what do I read next?
• What is the topic? Should this content be in more than 1 poster or brochure or document. Mostly for Easy English this is a definite yes.

Let's look at 2 posters created for COVID19 recently.

1) Developed by Australian Easy English Writer 

2) UK developed Easy Read for an Australian audience.

Australian Easy English 

Australian Easy English 

UK developed Australian content Easy Read  

Element	Australian Easy English	UK developed Australian Easy Read
Title	With image	Multiple images left and right of image
Placement of images	Title on left of text. Body, consistently on top of text	Title – left and right of text.  Body of text - Most on left, but also on Right and above text
Use of white (empty) space	Yes	No
Double line space throughout	Yes	No
Images per page	6	12
Space for each image	Yes	No. Often overlap
Selection of images	Symbols. Used by people with disability	Photos. Of people with disability. UK models
Use of columns	Yes – minimum text and image	Yes – columns filled with text and images. One or two words per column width.
Use of -       Bold -       Sentence case -       Italics	Yes – heading Yes No	Yes - heading and body of text No. eg: DO NOT; CALL Yes eg: CALL
Repetition	No	Yes – telephone number
Standard format for phone numbers	N/A	No
Topic	1 per poster	Multiple topics

Even with this small comparison there are significant differences in the 2 types of posters. This has an impact for our readers with more limited literacy. Visually the reader needs to ask where do I start: where do I go: which bit is important: what is the green triangle for?

Formatting such as sentence case only and no italics has been identified as 2 elements which all readers need. Why then should a document that has an intended audience of people with lower literary have these elements in their document?

Some language differences.

Although only a small sample, the differences in these posters reflect what I discovered in the larger language analysis completed using 5 documents in Easy English and 5 documents in Easy Read, rather than single page posters. 

Element	Australian Easy English  Poster L        Poster R	UK developed Australian Easy Read
Number of words	13                       26	58
Use of grammatical markers, eg ing, ly, plural	1 -plural            2 - plural	6 – ing – 2 -       ly – 1 -       ed – 1 -       plural - 3
Sentence length	1 sentence;        1 sentence; Of 4 words        Of 4 words	7 sentences; Ave 8.2 words long
Phrases	4 phrases.         6 phrases Ave 2 word        Ave 3.5 long                   words long	0
If …then statements	0                         0	1
Use of conjunctions Eg: ‘and‘  ‘or’	0                        0	3
Use of contractions eg: won’t	0                        0	2
Everyday word use COVID-19 or Coronavirus	COVID-19 (1)    COVID-19 (1)	Coronavirus (2)

 There are other areas for word analysis.

One is to look at the number of words with more than 1 syllable.

Element	Australian Easy English Poster L       Poster R	UK developed Australian Easy Read
Words with more than 1 syllable	2                          5 2 syll – 1              2 syll - 5 3 syll - 1	11 2 syll – 8 3 syll – 4 syll –1 5 syll - 2
Percent of total words	15%                17%	18%
Number of words with more than 3 syllables	0                        0	3 = 5%

 These findings are typical for all the comparative data I have collected between Easy English and Easy Read content. Keeping in mind that if someone has difficulty saying a word, they are less likely to understand the word and use it themselves. Additionally they are less able to make the connection with that word written down. In my typical consumer reviews, consumers have difficulty saying most words over 2 syllables in length. They rarely use them, and rarely know what they mean. 

All this analysis is critical to know about and be aware of as you construct your accessible content to provide best practice accessible, functional and meaningful information for everyone.

Let's agree that Easy English and Easy Read are different. Individually you may have a consumer who can manage more complex information. However, if that is all you develop for everyone you are leaving a substantial and very vulnerable cohort of people out of the circle of information.

Happy to talk with you about other data I have collected, and the impact on developing effective Easy English or book into my training. Learn more about how you can write effective and best practice Easy English. Details on my home page  

Easy English resources

Poster. Look for the signs https://bit.ly/3944NrJ

Poster. Look after your self.  https://bit.ly/2WxSl0L

Visit https://accesseasyenglish.com.au/covid-19-resources/ for all the Easy English resources

Stay safe, Cathy

Cathy Basterfield
Owner Access Easy English
Consultant – Speech Pathologist

Telephone: 0466 579 855

Email: cathy@accesseasyenglish.com.au
Website: https://accesseasyenglish.com.au/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/accesseasyenglish
Blog: http://accesseasyenglish.blogspot.com.au
Twitter: @accesseasyengli