How accessible is your health care information?
We often assume that because we have written and printed something, we have communicated it to the reader. But too often, the opposite is true. If our text is hard to understand or uses an inaccessible design, or style, we actually create obstacles for our readers.
We inadvertently withhold the information we intended to share. And we alienate the reader we had hoped to empower… all because we did not write or design the text properly.
Writing effectively is especially important for health care materials. How well we write can directly impact a patient’s health.
What happens if a patient can’t understand…
- the directions on a prescription,
- a medical pamphlet that describes treatment for their recovery, or
- a brochure describing AIDS prevention?
How can you make your information more accessible?
Start by writing in clear, plain language and then field test it. This is so important that the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO) has developed accreditation scoring on how well patients understand health care instructions provided.
But this is not just a health care issue. The federal and many state governments are establishing specific readability criteria for consumer documents and web sites.
Readability is known by many names: Easy Reading, Accessible Text, Low-Literacy, Plain Language, and Plain English.
But the underlying concept is the same – choosing the right words, format and design maximizes the number of people who can read and understand your materials.
What are the benefits of using Plain Language?
- Plain Language documents make foreign language translations easier and more cost effective.
How does Plain Language make translation easier?
If your English documents are easy to read, use and understand, your translations will be too! A Plain Language document typically has 40% fewer words than the original. As translations are billed on a per word basis, translation costs will be lower.
To learn more, see Readability Basics below. Contact Transcend for information on our Plain Language Training.
Transcend’s Plain Language Training includes:
- Plain Language writing techniques
- Readability instruments, print & web
- Plain Language editing and review
- Plain Language formatting
- Field Test Instruments
- Field Test Methods
- Focus Groups & Reporting
- Glossaries and Templates
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