HI all,
Women with Disabilities Victoria have developed their Safeguards project. As part of the implementation they have included versions for different accessibly needs.
Access Easy English developed the Easy English version of the book.
This work was developed in response to their research Voices against Violence which is also available in Easy English
This also ties in with the work we did with the South Eastern Integrated Family Violence Centre in providing information in Easy English
- for the many women who need it. My Safety Plan - in a 'z 'card (the size of a credit card)
and
- men who receive Intervention Orders. Men Think Safe Act Safe
Talk to me about developing your project information so that more people can read, understand and know what to do.
Cathy
Cathy Basterfield
accesseasyenglish.com.au
cathy@accesseasyenglish.com.au
0466 579 855
@accesseasyengli
Facebook: Access Easy English
Monday, 27 August 2018
Friday, 20 October 2017
Papers from PLAIN International 2017
Day 2 Key notes included a
presentation from the newly created German Easy to Read Concept. "Leichte
Sprache". They have published a large text on 'how to write in German Easy
to Read'.
A few papers discussed working with
people with lower literacy skills.
Belgium - Van Der Waarde - Plain
Language in health: Can understandable information improve the use of medicines
by patients? This was developed from the graphic designer perspective, with
lots of insights into how to get images to work for the content.
Germany - Weigard/Zschorlicj - Head
lice: Nothing to be ashamed of. Evidence based health information for hard to
reach target groups. Important message: websites do not work for this target
group!!!
Ireland - Lane/Droog - Men's
Cancer Prevention and Health Literacy. Discussed how information needs to be
presented differently for men - use of easy to read language; humour, positive
messages and infographics. Interestingly they have their images on the Right
side of pages. Love to chat more....
Australia - Basterfield – Workshop –
Improve Communication- Improve Customer Relationships. For those that came a
great discussion on how the strategies for interactive communication are
as relevant and as important as our written messages. Working with participants
who have English as a 2nd. 3rd or 4th language
was great fun, as we tried to identify simple everyday words for complex ones!.
Australia – Basterfield – Who is my
Customer. A thought provoking paper, which people afterwards commented they had
no idea or hadn’t realised the vulnerable people I write Easy English for, is
(i) out there and (ii) as prevalent as it is.
A couple of papers I missed , but want
to catch up with...
Sweden - Jaensson Introducing a new
grant to new target groups. Unfortunately I didn’t get to this paper as I was
chairing another session. Looking forward to the PPT and a follow up with
Annasara;
Germany – Frohlich – Capito – Easy to
read . Practical experiences.
Based on digital experiences.
Development of the ‘çapito’ method and quality standards.
Cathy Basterfield
Access Easy English
0466 579 855
Facebook: /accesseasyenglish
Twitter: @accesseasyengl@accessseasyengli
"Thank you for making this information harder to read" From PLAIN International 2017
Held in Graz, Austria at the largest
university in their city.
Lots of people from many different
countries attended. There a few more papers and discussion about meeting the
needs of people who do have more limited literacy, which was great to see.
PPT's from the conference will be available soon. I will put the link here when
they are available.
Highlights - there were many.
In the Opening Address Neil James, the
outgoing President welcomed everyone with the 4 'S' of Plain Language.
- Service
- Satisfaction
- Safety
- Savings.
Service
covered things such as
- information from a company is
easier to understand;
- it takes less time to write and act
on the information;
- saves money;
- better relationships with customers.
Satisfaction
- A great slide with comments about
"when was the last time a customer said......."
'thank you
for making this information more complicated than it needed to be';
'but this was too easy to understand';
'I feel smarter when you make it harder to read';
I
would like to spend more time doing this (read document)!'
Safety
Complex information is not clear. It
is more open to misinterpretation. Think about an insurance statement....
Savings
More recent data has shown when using Plain
Language:-
25%-40% reduction in a documents
length;
50% reduction in writing time
40%-60% reduction in reviewing time;
50% reduction in number of drafts;
50% increase in reader satisfaction.
Now put these in the context of Easy
English.....
Cathy Basterfield
Access Easy English
0466 579 855
Facebook: /accesseasyenglish
Twitter: @accesseasyengl@accessseasyengli
Monday, 22 May 2017
RoboDebt; Not My debt; CentreLink Enquiry
HI all,
Earlier this year the Federal
Government commissioned the Senate to complete an enquiry into the Design, scope, cost-benefit analysis, contracts awarded and
implementation associated with the Better Management of the Social Welfare
System initiative . The less confusing version is: "CentreLink and the
experiences of people during the so-called 'robo-debt' collection.”
My submission is at http://www.aph.gov.au/…/Com…/SocialWelfareSystem/Submissions No. 116.
It was great to read so many
organisations highlighted the needs of the many vulnerable people in the
community who have lots of difficulty in accessing numerical and financial
information, or even knowing what are their Rights.
I was invited to present to the Senate
enquiry in person (teleconference). On Thursday 27 April, 2017, I presented to
the Australian Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs regarding my
submission, access and information at CentreLink, both low adult literacy and
also low computer literacy in our community.
The
Hansard recording of my hearing presentation is here. Look under Launceston 27 April, 2017.
The
Advocate" http://www.theadvocate.com.au/…/…/centrelink-english-learnt/ and "The Examiner" http://www.examiner.com.au/…/462…/centrelink-english-learnt/ also reported on my presentation, as
well as other presentations from the Launceston hearing, including mentioning
my evidence.
I
included some information on numerical literacy in my submission. In my
presentation I focused more specifically on the breadth and extent of low
literacy skills in our community, and also the lack of computer literacy (and
access to the hardware/internet) in the community, required to access
CentreLink.
I
could have also discussed the huge percent of adults with low Numerical
Literacy in our community, but there is only so much you can emphasize in a 35
minute conversation. The import of my message was heard.
Another
submission used the term "CentreLink English" to describe how
difficult it is to read and understand information from CentreLink. I was asked
about whether I had heard this term before! No, but just imagine you walk into
a new job. Everyone uses acronyms, phrases and words that are familiar to them,
but completely unfamiliar to you, the outsider. Yes, that is what CentreLink
English is like.
The report from this enquiry is due out in early June 2017.
Next: is to hear what will happen for change.
What will the recommendations be? I will keep you posted.
Next: is to hear what will happen for change.
What will the recommendations be? I will keep you posted.
I am here to help you
develop and build awareness of the need for government documents to be
accessible for people with non functional literacy. I am advertising a 2 day
training “Learn to write Easy English” for June 19 & 20 in Melbourne. Flyer and booking links or contact me using any of the methods below.
Cathy Basterfield
Access Easy English
0466 579 855
Facebook: /accesseasyenglish
Twitter: @accesseasyengl@accessseasyengli
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