Easy English is all about breaking down information and presenting it in a way that can be easily understood by anyone. It is designed to help communicate with people living with intellectual disabilities, as well as people with low literacy levels and people who have adopted English as an additional language.
As 44% of Australians have difficulty reading and writing, we encourage organisations to actively use Easy English in their communications. Here at Activ, we have created a range of resources to ensure our content is accessible to everyone.
If you’re wondering how Easy English can be used to improve communication, let us take you through how it works.
Your guide to Easy English
The key to Easy English is keeping everything as simple as possible. It involves using short sentences and everyday language alongside supporting images to provide the reader with only the most important information.
Instead of dense paragraphs, Easy English uses basic dot points with large font sizes. No matter whether it is presented as digital content or a printed document, there will be a lot of blank, white space around the text to help improve clarity.
Any graphics used will be purely for illustrative purposes to emphasise the meaning of the text. All the pictures will be very straightforward and minimalistic, with no background clutter or overuse of patterns, lines or textures.
Some people may be able to independently read and understand Easy English, while others may require further support – it all depends on the individual. When a friend, family member or support worker needs to assist In communicating Information, having the content presented in Easy English Is really beneficial, as it will help them to communicate the information in a clear and simple way.
Why we need accessible content
Easy English enables businesses to distribute information and communicate in a more inclusive way, while providing personal benefits to many individuals. For people living with an intellectual disability, it can help to increase access to important information that they need to live more independently.
Our easy reading resources
As a disability service provider, we’re here to support people living with intellectual disabilities and help them on their journey to becoming more independent. For everyone to understand what we do and how we can help, we need to ensure our content is accessible.
We have partnered with VisAbility to create a number of Easy English resources to help people better understand our services and policies. Visit our dedicated Easy English Resources page to learn more.
Our Easy English resources explain each of our core services and are available below.
We connect people living with intellectual disabilities to suitable housing options.
We help people participate in their community, creating opportunities to explore personal interests and socialise.
Through career coaching and work placements, we enable people to find meaningful employment.
Our purpose-built facilities provide temporary accommodation to children and adults.
We offer nationally recognised training courses to upskill people living with intellectual disabilities.