Making Ends Meet: Choice of formats

Accessible information aims to communicate with as broad a span of your audience as possible, including people who can be difficult to reach or may have difficulty understanding what you have to say. Even a quick analysis of the audience can help to determine the most appropriate formats. There’s no point doing it if it can’t get into the right hands! Whenever possible, test your solution on a sample of your audience — not only is testing useful, it can be remarkably revealing about what your audience knows about what you do!

Easy To Read documents are aimed at people with intellectual disabilities, people with low literacy and people who do not have English as their first language. They use very simple, clear language and images to convey their most important messages.

Writing Easy To Read materials does not mean writing in a childish way. It means using an adult format, and making the information as easy to understand as possible. Just because it reads easy, don’t assume it writes easy! There are grammar, tone and style rules for writing in both Easy to Read and Plain English.

Other formats, like audio, large print, Braille and electronic versions, need to be considered for their usefulness and appropriateness. For example, audio formats are not appropriate for a large directory. Nor is an audio version always appropriate for a leaflet — there are times when a radio ad and dedicated telephone line would work much more effectively.

You also need to decide how these formats will be publicised and distributed. How will people who use Braille, for example, know that you have a Braille version of a document? next >

CASE STUDY — Map of Homeless Services for Crosscare Housing and Welfare Information

Brief & requirements
Crosscare Housing and Welfare Information is an information and advocacy service with a focus on housing, homelessness, social welfare and related matters. The brief was to produce a map for homeless people which clearly denotes all types of services available in the centre of Dublin City. The map had to be easy to understand, pocket-sized and durable.

Our solution
An easy to understand and easy to navigate credit card-sized map. Text is at a minimum and symbols are used to denote services. Using a patented print product called Little Book, we created an A3 map which folds easily to credit card size. It was designed in consultation with the end users and refined as a result of their comments. It has a heavier weight cover when folded, which greatly increases its durability.

The map and all its content are also available online and have become a valuable resource for Crosscare staff in their drop-in centre.

download map