Access Easy English

Thursday, 16 April 2020

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

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

Wednesday, 15 April 2020

Easy English. Easy Read. What's it all about?

Over the last 18 months I have been presenting papers at various international and national conferences on just this issue.

The papers have been based on the research I have done looking at the visual and the linguistic differences between Easy English and Easy Read.

But first let’s dispel a myth.

Australian Easy English was originally and continues to be developed for a range of people with low or little literacy skills. It is not that this is for people with intellectual disabilities, and something else, such as Easy Read is for those one do not have an intellectual disability. If I am writing for a Disability Service, I may choose different images and some specific vocabulary compared to a project for the local Courts. However, the final look of a document, the way elements are put together and the sentence construction will be the same. Easy English is relevant to anyone in our community who needs it. At this time of stress and anxiety about COVID19 and constantly changing rules and regulations, Easy English is valuable for everyone in our community.

The development of Easy English or Easy Read is a multi-faceted and multi-layered mix of language, vocabulary, sentence structure, format, images and consumer testing. Trying to unpack each of these categories and then the many elements in these categories to determine what functionally works best can be a challenge. We need to start progressing the conversation and build awareness of the fact Easy English and Easy Read are different.

How then does this relate to the latest research that looks at comprehension of Easy Read?

You need to read the next blog to hear more about that.

First impressions are very important. So, let’s look at a visual comparison of Easy English and Easy Read.

Research in this area explains 'white space is thinking space.'

Having clear and delineated space between topics enhances the readers desire to engage with the material. The document needs to feel open and welcoming to its readers.

For this blog, I am taking 3 documents on the same content on COVID19.

Let's look at a page of

1) Australian Easy English 2) Australian Easy Read and 3) UK Easy Read. All three have been published in the last 3- 4 weeks in 2020 (Late March/early April).

1.Easy English Australia

2. Easy Read Australia

3. Easy Read UK

Element	Australian Easy English	Australian Easy Read	UK Easy Read
Title	With image	No image	With image
Title in line with body of text.	Yes. In line with text	No. Left aligned	Yes In line with text
Use of white (empty) space	Yes	No	Yes for text No for images
Double line space throughout	Yes	No	No
Use of columns	No	Yes	No
Coloured images to enhance meaning	Yes	No	Yes
4-5 images per page	Yes	No	Yes
Selection of images	Symbols. Used by people with disability	Line drawings. New images. Stylised	Photos. Of people with disability. UK models
Images connected visually to the text	Yes	No	No

This table and the examples do demonstrate there are visual differences between Easy English and Easy Read. Of note, there are more similarities between UK Easy Read and Australian Easy English than the Australian Easy Read in this specific example. You would need to do a comparison across multiple documents to see the clear pattern of differences.

Why is it important to know and recognise these differences?

Content developed needs to use the best available research and evidence. It is imperative that when developing accessible content for vulnerable audiences what is developed best reflects what the research tells us, such as

- the value of white space;

- the importance of images with headings;

- predictable places to find the text and content. i.e. always find the image on the left, and the text beside it, i.e. no use of columns.

The two Easy Read versions above, may be appropriate for some audiences. However, it still leaves a substantial percent of people without access to meaningful information. It would be far better to develop content that meets the needs of far more people in the first instance, rather than still leave the more vulnerable people in an already vulnerable group out of access to information.

For a final thought. Compare the front pages of the 3 documents.

A front page is something with lots of white space with connections to what you want to find out about and know.

1. Easy English Australia

2. Easy Read Australia

3. Easy Read UK

Read the next blog to look at some of the language analysis similarities and differences of these 3 documents

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

Using images to create meaning for COVID19

Communication during COVID19

It has been a long time since I have put a blog up.

With all the content being developed for this current time, it is already useful to have some reflections on what is being created for various audiences.

Below is a blog from Ariella Meltzer from Power to Persuade @ariella_meltzer on 1 April 2020 discussing her observations as she collates accessible COVID19 resources.

Information accessibility during the COVID-19 crisis Full article.

She covers a number of highly relevant issues regarding accessible written content. Some of her comments and excerpts from her article are below:

How quickly does accessible information come out?

" Within a few days of the COVID-19 situation becoming serious in Australia, .....

the timeline should be the same for the accessible information – particularly in a crisis that has disproportionate impacts for people with disability."

Which accessible formats are covered, and why?

"......COVID-19 has been in Easy Read/Easy English format.

Auslan resources have also been produced, but are a distant second in terms of quantity.

Other formats – such as ‘social stories’, entirely pictorial (wordless) information and images for users of alternative and augmentative communication systems – have only been available very rarely, and not necessarily from Australian-based organisations."

" A thorough approach using multiple formats has never been more important."

To what extent is accessible information kept up-to-date?

" one accessible document cannot be enough, because the information – what is happening, what we know, the level of risk and the rules we need to abide by – keeps changing.

Only a minority of those producing accessible information are however continually updating their offerings as the COVID-19 situation changes and people’s information needs change. Access Easy English has provided many updates, including after each announcement of new social distancing rules by Prime Minister Morrison.........

Expression Australia has also provided regular updates in Auslan..............

Other organisations, such as IDEAS and PWD Australia, have included accessible information among their regularly updated COVID-19 information hub pages, ......

The work by these organisations show the importance of accessible information being kept as up-to-date as that which the rest of the population has available."

Is only the baseline information covered or the same variety of sub-topics that others receive?

"....risk ......only the most basic set of information is covered and that many of the sub-topics are left behind. .......A few organisations have led the way by publishing more than one accessible document about COVID-19.

Access Easy English has published many different documents including explainers on the virus and hand washing and summaries of the various social and health rules that have been announced.

Similarly, NSW Council for Intellectual Disability has published not only an easy explainer about COVID-19 but also separate documents about how to maintain one’s mental health during this period and about rules for staying home.

The Growing Space also has a page full of resources on different topics.

.....this variety of information seems very sensible, useful, practical and needed."

How, and by who, is the information produced and disseminated?

"......provision of accessible information on COVID-19 has been done by specialist information access services or disability advocacy groups. .......... In this respect, they are logical places from which such information can be distributed in an already-scary and unsettling time.

On the other hand, however, leaving the production of accessible information to these groups at a time of such critical public health messaging could also be seen as an abdication of responsibility by other information outlets who are otherwise covering COVID-19 and providing health advice. Should news services and governments also be involved in producing such information? There is some government department-branded accessible information on COVID-19, but it came out late and is not as comprehensive as that provided by the specialist information access services and disability advocacy groups."

Who checks the accuracy and quality of the information?

Finally, there is also a question about quality control of any accessible information on COVID-19. At a time when good messaging is of critical importance, it is vital that any accessible material provided to people is both accurate in its medical and social information and good quality, in terms of following accessible production guidelines (e.g. using proper formatting, pictures, easy language etc). Without being accurate and high quality, the usefulness of the information is diminished and, at worst, can confuse people or even give them the wrong information. The difficulty is that accessible information is an area that has not ever been regulated or subject to quality control checks in Australia. At the best of times, the quality of accessible information varies – and this matters even more when people’s lives depend on it. Collaboration between producers of accessible information who are well-trained in accessible production guidelines and health experts who can check the accuracy of the medical information included is ideal, but this is also hard to achieve at a moment when time and resources are so stretched. "

Thanks for sharing your reflections Ariella.

Look out now for my next blogs and commentaries on how information is provided at this time, and my new blog on Easy English and Easy Read. They are different.

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