The Health Literacy Style Manual - Covering Kids & Families

Recommendations

Info

Foreword This little book is filled with hints and suggestions for developing and improving applications, notices, and other print materials related to government programs. In it are some tried and true strategies for writing and formatting specifically for clients, many of whom have limited literacy skills. Most of these strategies are not new, but we’ve collected them here, added some of our own, and illustrated them with (mostly) real-life examples. They’ll help you develop easy-to-read materials for skilled readers as well as for those who struggle to read. THANKS TO THOSE IN THE TRENCHES Our own experience has been immeasurably enhanced by working with the wonderful grantees of the Supporting Families After Welfare Reform and Covering Kids & Families process improvement collaboratives over the past few years. They asked us to take a look at their “problem” materials—the ones they felt might be barriers to enrollment and retention. We made some recommendations, they did some revising, and then they asked for feedback from clients to find out if our recommendations and their revisions really were what the clients needed. Many of the grantees developed keen eyes for identifying F O R E W O R D | v
and improving problem materials, and the end result is that more and more materials in those states have become client-centered. As for us, we’ve had the unique experience of getting an in-depth look at a wide variety of materials and of discussing problems and successes with the very people who create, distribute, and help clients use those materials. We’ve learned a lot. We thank the grantees for helping us learn and for the many pleasant memories that we’ve acquired in the process, in cities across the nation. Most of the examples in this manual are real program materials, but in some cases the state names have been deleted. The important point is not whose materials they are, but what we can learn from them. THE MAXIMUS CENTER FOR HEALTH LITERACY Penny Lane Mercedes Blanco Leslie Ford Holly Smith Mirenda DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and no official endorsement by the Southern Institute on Children and Families or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation should be inferred. vi | TH E HEA LTH LITERACY STYLE MANUA L
Page 1 and 2: The Health Literacy Style Manual Pr
Page 3 and 4: WR I T I N G 1 7 Write in plain lan
Page 5: C overing the cost Small-scale test
Page 9 and 10: WHO ARE YOUR READERS? Nearly half o
Page 11 and 12: HOW CLIENTS “READ” HEALTH INFOR
Page 13 and 14: This is a “before and after” of
Page 15 and 16: help the rest of the team understan
Page 17 and 18: This example of a poster, like that
Page 19 and 20: CR E AT E A LO O K A N D F E E L Al
Page 21 and 22: u n f o r t u n a t e l y, explaini
Page 23 and 24: 16 | THE HEALTH LITERAC Y STYLE MA
Page 25 and 26: vocabularies. Using common, everyda
Page 27 and 28: The left column shows words that ar
Page 29 and 30: B u r e a u c ratic language and le
Page 31 and 32: USE THE ACTIVE VOICE Write in the a
Page 33 and 34: Longer sentences are not necessaril
Page 35 and 36: Here is the revised notice. US E A
Page 37 and 38: You can improve the readability of
Page 39 and 40: This notice contains important info
Page 41 and 42: LINK NEW INFORMATION TO OLD Readers
Page 43 and 44: OF F E R H E L P TO R E A D E R S M
Page 45 and 46: CHOOSE A CLEAN DESIGN The first pag
Page 47 and 48: CHOOSING FONTS For readers with lim
Page 49 and 50: PRINT SIZE The point size of type (
Page 51 and 52: LAYOUT To lay out a page is to arra
Page 53 and 54: When the alignment is right-justifi
Page 55 and 56: CONTRAST Text is easiest to read wh
Page 57 and 58:
• I t a l i c s . The contrast be
Page 59 and 60:
The blue on this brochure (written
Page 61 and 62:
H e a d i n g s Headings and subhea
Page 63 and 64:
Be careful to write an introductory
Page 65 and 66:
• Make them illustrative. Visual
Page 67 and 68:
• D o n ’t print over a graphic
Page 69 and 70:
This form (still in draft when we r
Page 71 and 72:
The small print and difficult vocab
Page 73 and 74:
Folding and mailing When you’re p
Page 75 and 76:
application itself. Don’t begin t
Page 77 and 78:
• Avoid using the word “optiona
Page 79 and 80:
• Many readers have no context fo
Page 81 and 82:
PROBLEM CHARTS AND TABLES Forms and
Page 83 and 84:
This application doesn’t avoid cr
Page 85 and 86:
Income charts Income charts are par
Page 87 and 88:
80 | THE HEALTH LITERAC Y STYLE MA
Page 89 and 90:
d i ff e rent point of view. But fo
Page 91 and 92:
a little more, and the re s e a rch
Page 93 and 94:
Small-scale testing is a significan
Page 95 and 96:
p rompt the participant if she’s
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
TRA N S L AT I N G I S A S P E C I
Page 101 and 102:
When your quality assurance person,
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105:
For more information For more detai
show all

The Health Literacy Style Manual - Covering Kids & Families

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?