[NIFL-HEALTH:3658] Re: Readability vs. Understandability

From: Linda McIntosh (lmcintosh@attbi.com)
Date: Wed Apr 10 2002 - 07:54:30 EDT


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From: "Linda McIntosh" <lmcintosh@attbi.com>
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Subject: [NIFL-HEALTH:3658] Re: Readability vs. Understandability
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I am following this strand with a lot of interest.
I am creating a policy for my organization (Cambridge Health Alliance,
Cambridge MA) regarding reading level of health education materials
submitted for translation. With the support of the organization's
leadership, we are proposing to require a documented reading level of 6th
grade or lower for anything to be translated for patients. I've chosen that
rather than a more meaningful reading level plus "easy-to-read" criteria
because RL is measureable.

We treat many people who speak other languages better than English. Many of
them have very limited reading skills. While print isn't the only way we
present take-home  information, it is the major one. We decided to focus on
materials to be translated as there seems no way to ensure that we would
ever see ALL materials used with patients and we don't want a policy that we
can't comply with.

Has anyone done this? What was the impact?
Linda McIntosh, RN CS
Coordinator of Patient Education
Cambridge Health Alliance, Cambridge MA



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