Images, photos and illustrations

There are many many choices you could access and use to enhance the meaning of your Easy English documents. Go to any search engine, and click on images, and there is a huge variety there.

You could spend many hours sourcing clever or funny images. However this is not the purpose of including images in Easy English.

Think about your audience

·         teenagers?

·         adults?

·         a particular community?, eg: Vietnamese community.

Images need to reflect and connect with your audience, otherwise they do not assist understanding.

In addition images need to be clear, and uncluttered.
Colored images are more interesting for everyone. Color can also help aid interpretation of an image.

It can be valuable to purchase some image sets. These have been consumer tested, and many have also been developed by people with limited literacy. Both the image developers mentioned below, will also take requests for new symbols/concepts.

Check out
http://www.inspiredservices.org.uk/sales-clipart.html 
and
http://www.spectronicsinoz.com/product/boardmaker-software-family 
(Boardmaker/ with Picture Communication Symbols - PCS, has Australian addendum's also.

Cathy
cathy@accesseasyenglish.com.au

Experiences of people with disabilities reporting crime

It is every person’s right to be able to access the information they need, in a time and place commensurate with other people in their community.  http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=259

It is valuable to consider information gathering and research as part of this access to information.

The Human Rights Commission Victoria, has recently published a survey to complete. You can access an Easy English version online or print a copy and send back. 

http://www.humanrightscommission.vic.gov.au/index.php/component/k2/item/620-survey-experiences-of-people-with-disabilities-reporting-crime

If you need assistance in developing surveys or data collection for people with low literacy please email cathy@accesseasyenglish.com.au

More on taking your medication

More and more is being written and researched about how patients are taking (or not) taking their medications properly.  Another article below highlights some of the reasons why.  Once again though, proper consideration for the significant population of people with non-functional literacy appears to be less considered.

Read the article "Americans Not Making the Grade on Medication Adherence" published by Medscape Jun 25, 2013.http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/806864?nlid=31865_1301&src=wnl_edit_dail&uac=206251HV 

Then checkout other examples of how information could be improved for people with low literacy.

An appointment card http://www.easyhealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/appointment_card.pdf

 

 When and how to take my medication - this document has places for the patient to fill in details about their own medications.http://www.easyhealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/All%20my%20medications.pdf

Email or call me to discuss how to improve how your consumers can better understand their medications.

cathy@accesseasyenglish.com.au or phone 0466 579 855

References

1. Megan Brooks. Americans Not Making the Grade on Medication Adherence" published by Medscape Jun 25, 2013.http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/806864?nlid=31865_1301&src=wnl_edit_dail&uac=206251HV Downloaded 15 July 2013.

 2. EasyHealth

Appointment card http://www.easyhealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/appointment_card.pdf  

Downloaded 15 July 2013. 

3.  EasyHealth

When and how to take my medicationhttp://www.easyhealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/All%20my%20medications.pdf   Downloaded 15 July 2013.

 

What word will I use?

The English language is difficult for many people to read.

Words spelt the same way, may have different meanings or different ways to be pronounced.


 How often do you have to think about which words to choose in your text?
How often  do the words have more than one meaning?
...Then you must think about how the words are put together.  



Read about "Up", one of the smallest words in the English language.

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.'

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?
Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?
We call UP our friends.
And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.
We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.
At other times the little word has real special meaning.
People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.
To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.
A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.
We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary.
In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used.
It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.
When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP,
for now my time is UP,





Text from unknown origin,


Also read about "run" from Simon Winchester in the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/opinion/29winchester.html?_r=0 

Cathy cathy@accesseasyenglish.com.au