Presentations from PLAIN conference, 2013

With just over 2 weeks since the PLAIN conference in Vancouver, presentations are starting to come available on the internet.

The paper I presented in partnership with Mark Starford, from The Board Centre,(US) has been uploaded for your viewing.  Our paper Plain Language for Democracy and Citizenship is available at  http://www.slideshare.net/plain2013

You can contact me with any questions, or requests for resources or references mentioned in the presentation.

Cathy
cathy@accesseasyenglish.com.au
0466 579 855

Use of Signing

October is International Augmentative and Alternative Communication awareness month.

Unaided Communication is an integral part of any communication system. Sign and Gesture is unaided communication

Check out the new Victorian Key Word Sign website. www.keywordsignvictoria.org.au  Also become a friend on the Key Word Sign Victoria Facebook account. Join in the conversation about use of Key Word Sign.  N.B. Key Word Sign Victoria is the new organisation that has replaced  Makaton Victoria

The website has dates for training workshops to learn to use sign, and also how to request a sign workshop for your own environment.
The 2014 calendar of training will be out soon, as will the dates for Presenter Training.

A number of great resources, articles and other clips are also available.  Find out how to buy the latest resource “Getting Started with Key Word Sign.(Auslan Edition)

As a new website, new information is always being added.

Need to know more?
 
cathy@accesseasyenglish.com.au
0466 579 855

Cathy

Some thoughts from the International PLAIN conference

How can I use the ideas I heard at the recent Vancouver International PLAIN conference?  http://www.plain2013.org/

Can I adapt any ideas for writing for people with low literacy skills?

Yes!

Plenary session.
How do our readers really think, understand, and decide                                                        - despite what they know.
Some concepts from Mark Hochhauser, PHD

1. Decision making - use "law of least effort." All readers will take the least demanding route.
2. Word knowledge is critical for good comprehension. However, people with low literacy have not made the shift from word recognition to language comprehension. People with low literacy will read word-for-word, without being able to necessarily comprehend the message.
3. Some Health Problems can affect cognition, and therefore reading, comprehension and interpretation of written materials. For example, 
     - inpatient experience of being an inpatient of ICU, or 
     - chemotherapy treatment.

Report on International Assessment of Adult competencies.
A summary of new data in Canada, and internationally from Noel Baldwin, Policy Coordinator for Post Secondary Education  at Council of Ministers of Education, Canada.

The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competences (PIAAC) complete data was released just a few days before the conference. Specific data was discussed for Canada, so watch this space for updates on Australian data. What will it mean for the development of documents in Easy English?

The new data looked at 3 keys areas - Prose Literacy, Numerical Literacy and Problem based Technology Literacy.

My paper with Mark Starford included the new data for Australia and US.
44% or 7.3 million Adult Australians has non functional literacy.
52 % of Adult US citizens has non functional literacy

More details of the Australian data and the international report coming ASAP!

Cathy
Cathy@accesseasyenglish.com.au
0466 579 855

More thoughts on images and writing

In traveling in Canada, First Nations stories can be seen. As in Australia, Canadian First Nations people describe their languages as oral languages.

While visiting a First Nations Cultural Center in Whistler, I was told it is only in the last 40  years the Canadian First Nations oral languages have started to be written down. Often though there is not a direct written correlation with the oral sound.  

However, there is evidence all around us that both Canadian and Australian Aborigines have used images to convey messages. Dance and totems have also been used to convey messages in different ways.

Look at the images below from the First Nations Cultural Center. What could they mean? 

Cathy
cathy@accesseasyenglish.com.au
0466 579 855

2013 PLAIN conference

It is just a day now before this years conference starts.http://www.plain2013.org  Safe travel for all those arriving in the next few hours. I look forward to seeing some of you there. I am presenting on Friday with Mark Starford from BR Center, US http://brcenter.org/ on Plain Language for Democracy and Citizen Engagement, in the Nelson Room on Friday afternoon.
 
Come along to hear why written information needs to be written for people with limited or non functional literacy.  What impact does non-functional literacy have on access to ones community?  Engage with us to identify barriers and facilitators to working with this demographic.

Cathy
cathy@accesseasyenglish.com.au
0466 579 855

Images - Cultural Experiences and Life Experience.

With just a few days before the PLAIN conferencehttp://www.plain2013.org/ it is good to think about how our life experiences and culture can have an impact on the choice of images.

 Below are some examples of images I have seen in Canada. These make clear sense for Canadians who drive.   Are these images relevant for Easy English? Would they make sense for the reader?

·         Think about the relevance for people who do not drive? 

·         What images would an Australian audience need?

·         What animal images would be clear for Canadians?

·         What animal images would be clear for Australians?

·         Are there any images which could be used in either country, no matter the person’s nationality, life experience or cultural background?

What animal is this?

Have you seen this roadsign in Australia?

What does this road sign mean?  What would be different in Australia?

This sign was at a crossroads.Canada has 2 official languages;English and French.

Have you sign any Australian signs written in 2 languages?  

 Talk to Cathy about how to select images for your Easy English documents 

Cathy

cathy@accesseasyenglish.com.au

0466 579 855

                          

Augmentative and Alternative Communication Month

October is an important month for everyone to become more aware of people who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication.(AAC) Augmentative and Alternative Communication is a long phrase for different means of communicating besides speech. It can be the use of:
- formal sign and gesture;
- a personalised and individual gesture system;
- a communication board using pictures to point to the message;
- a communication board using word phrases;
- a text- based mobile phone system to exchange information;
- a high tech communication system, often with a voice output system.

Email, twitter and other social media are also great ways for people who have difficult to use speech, to communicate also.

Speech Pathologists are specialists in assessing and developing functional and useful communication systems for people who have little or no speech.

The use of an AAC system will not stop a person from using speech if they are able to.

Cathy is registered with DisabilityCare, now called the National Disability Insurance Agency. Contact Cathy for an assessment or ideas for implementing your Augmentative and Alternative Communication system. Cathy can also provide training to staff working with someone who uses an AAC system.

Cathy
cathy@accesseasyenglish.com.au
0466 579 855