Making
Written Things
Easier to
Understand
Contents
Introduction4
Making your words 6
easier to understand
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Version 2.0 December 2015
Making your photos easier to understand
8
Making your minutes10
easier to understand
Making your meetings12
easier to understand
4
Making Written Things
Easier to Understand
Introduction
All disabled people can
communicate.
involved in making choices and
decisions.
Communication is a basic human
right with each individual person using
different methods to understand and
be understood.
This book explains how people
with learning disabilities and their
communication partners can work
together to make information easier
to understand.
Some disabled people use words,
signs, pictures or objects, and some
people move parts of their body to
communicate.
It is important that people take
the time to value how a person
communicates and understand how
best to make it work well.
Disabled people have told us how it
feels when communication is good.
“I understand what is happening
and I feel ok about it all.”
We want to make sure that disabled
people can easily speak up about
their lives and services and this
means that they will be meaningfully
Using these rules is not always
enough. We always need to make
sure that disabled people have
understood. This is really important
when people are attending and
leading their own meetings.
The new Accessible Information
Standard was agreed on 24th June
2015. NHS and adult social care must
follow the Accessible Information
Standard by law.
The standard means they must ask
people if they have communication
needs. Then find out how they can
meet these needs. They must highlight
communication need on a person’s
file. They must make sure people can
get information in an accessible way.
This guide has been reviewed in the
light of this new standard.
6
Making Written Things
Easier to Understand
Make your words
easier to understand
Font size 8
Font size 10
Font size 12
Font size 14
Font size 16
1
Font size 18
Font size 20
No fancy fonts
for your text
Long sentences are difficult to
understand and make reading
very awkward especially when the
sentences could be broken down in
to smaller chunks and made easier
to read without too much hassle or
difficulty
Use at least font size 14.
You should always use font
size 14 as a minimum on all
documents. For people with a
visual impairment, this may need
to be made bigger.
Councillor - A Councillor
is elected by local
people to make big
decisions on the
services the council
provides.
5
Give good explanations
BLOCK CAPITALS CAN
MAKE READING LONG
PASSAGES OF TEXT
DIFFICULT, as can italics
and underlined text
6
Avoid using italics,
BLOCKCAPITALS or underlining
Not all hard words can be made
easy. Sometimes we have to learn
hard words. All hard words should
be explained.
Communication is a
basic human right
Use ‘Arial’ Font
When designing your document,
always use Arial as your font.
Arial is much easier for people
with a disability to read and
understand.
Easy to Read materials, sometimes called
Easy Read, provide information in plain
English.
3
Keep your sentences short
Have no more than 15 words in
a sentence. Very long sentences
should be split up to make them
easier to understand.
4
Use easy words
Always use easy words and try to
use the same word throughout.
Don’t use big words as it
makes documents difficult to
understand.
Writing easy read documents involves
several important steps:
• Planning your document to meet the
needs of the reader.
• Writing your document in simple
English.
• Making your document clear and
organised.
• Making sure you take your time to
check your document.
• Having an easy read document
doesn’t mean taking out important
information.
2
They are accessible to disabled people
as well as others who may have difficulty
reading or understanding information.
8
Making Written Things
Easier to Understand
Make your photos
and pictures easier to
understand
1
2
3
Putting in a photo or picture can
mean people understand things
better.
This can be helpful when talking
about people, places, times
or actions as they are easily
recognisable.
Even when we put photos and
pictures in, we still need to
support people to understand by
explaining the information.
Don’t just assume that adding
a photo or picture means the
person will understand.
Put photos on the left hand side
of words or sentences.
When placing your photos and
pictures always have all of your
images on the left hand side.
4
Choose the right picture or photo
for the text.
Always use pictures or photos
that people can easily
recognise. These can include
people, places or actions.
5
Use pictures or photos that mean
something to people.
Try to read your document
without looking at the text. The
pictures or photos used should
be able to give you all of the
information you need.
6
Use the same picture or photo
each time so people learn what
it means.
When you find a photo or picture
that works well to support people
to understand something, always
use the same.
10
Making Written Things
Easier to Understand
Make your minutes
easier to understand
Accessible Information
Project Agenda
Date: 1st January 2013
Time: 1:00 till 2:30
Place: Changing Our Lives Office,
West Midlands, B12 A34
Good minutes and
agendas are:
1
2
3
4
5
Welcome, Apologies and Introductions
Are easy to understand.
Use easy words and pictures.
Do not miss important things
out. Leaving out important
information from the minutes
does not make them easy to
understand. Minutes record
important information.
Accessible Information for people with Profound
and Multiple Learning Disabilities Presentation
Communication through sign language
presentation
Advocacy through videos
Break up information into short
sections.
There should only be one set
of minutes and agenda for a
meeting, not two.
Any other business
End of meeting
12
Making Written Things
Easier to Understand
Steering Group Minutes
Date: 1st January 2013
Accessible information for people with
profound and multiple learning disabilities
Denise did a 10 minute presentation on how to make
information accessible for people with profound and
multiple learning disabilities. Denise showed how we
can communicate using things that people can touch
and that this was called Tactile Communication.
Action: The group agreed that more people should
Time: 1:00 pm till 2:30
Place: Changing Our Lives Office,
West Midlands, B12 A34
People who came to the meeting:
know about tactile communication as many people
with profound disabilities rely on it. It was also agreed
that the group will make sure tactile communication is
offered to anyone that needs it.
Communication through Sign Language
Janet told the group about how she supports people
with poor hearing to communicate. Janet sits with
people during meetings and makes signs with her
hands that people can understand.
Action: The group agreed that when it holds a
meeting where there are people with a hearing
impairment, they will organise a sign language
interpreter to come and support them to take part in
the meeting.
Advocacy through Video
Bob, Ranbir, Margaret , Joan
People who sent apologies:
Roger told the group about how he supports people
to tell their story by making a video about their life and
the issues that they face. Roger explained that this is
useful when people can’t communicate using words.
Action: The group agreed that this is a great way for
disabled people to communicate and tell their story.
Roger will present again at the next meeting and show
some of the videos that people have made.
David, Cynthia
14
Making Written Things
Easier to Understand
Make your meeting
easier to understand
1
People need support to
understand written information,
even when we use easy words
and pictures.
2
We need time before a meeting
to read through the papers.
3
Minutes and papers should be
sent out as early as possible.
This gives our supporters time to
explain them to us.
4
We need support before the
meeting to plan what we are
going to say in the meeting. We
also need support during the
meeting to help us take part and
after the meeting to check what
we understood.
5
There should be a way to stop
the meetings if people don’t
understand. You could use red
cards. Or you could use buzzers,
as people with some physical
disabilities or profound and
multiple learning disabilities may
find these easier to use.
6
We put words we do not
understand in the ‘bin’. We draw
a picture of a bin on flip chart
paper. We write words that are
difficult to understand on post-its
and put them in the bin.
7
We ask people in the meeting
not to use the words in the
bin. We ask them to use easy
words.
Email: ask@changingourlives.org
Web: http://www.changingourlives.org