What is Easy Read?
Easy Read is a way to format information designed to be easier to understand.
The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination and from August 2016, all organisations that provide NHS care and/or publicly-funded adult social care are legally required to follow the Accessible Information Standard.
All information should be available in easy read, examples which are really important to be available in easy read are agendas for meetings, forms, instructions, guides ect.
Easy read documents have images to the left of text. Text is large print (approx. 16) and use short sentences without difficult words. If difficult words need to be used, there can be a key word section to explain what certain words mean.
Easy Read’s should include:
Large text (16 pint)
Font should be easy to read (e.g. sans serif or Helvetica)
Pictures to the left of text, big enough to see but not too big
Black text on white background is generally best but keep in mind contrast and that the colours are easy to see
Text to be broken down into shorter sentences
No jargon or difficult words
Keep it short
If words need to be highlighted, use bold rather than underlining or italics. Try avoid highlighting any words
Nice Twice tips are:
Ask people with lived experience to proof read it
Read the text out loud and use words which you’d speak
Plan to write easy reads at the start, it shouldn’t be afterthought – writing easy read’s really helps you focus on what the point or message is of the document so writing it first is really helpful!
Easy reads can look fun and inviting to read
There are wonderful organisations like Photo Symbols where you can access lots of symbols and images to use. You can also use your own! Get creative!
There are lots of useful guides on how to write easy read available, see the references below for more information.
References
Photo Symbols - photosymbols.com/pages/easy-read
Ability Net - abilitynet.org.uk/factsheets/what-easy-read
Mencap - mencap.org.uk/easy-read
NHS England - england.nhs.uk/about/equality/equality-hub/patient-equalities-programme/equality-frameworks-and-information-standards/accessibleinfo/
Equality Act 2010 - www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents