Hello Jeanne and others,

On Sep 8, 2008, at 9:02 AM, Jeanne McGehee wrote:


> Government forms are too complex for many poor readers to  

> understand and fill out.  The W-4, which must be filled out when  

> someone takes a job,  is needlessly complicated.  I also feel that  

> many poor people pay high fees to have their income tax foms filled  

> out for them because of their complexity.


Several years ago, reading expert and computer software education and  
training designer Michael Hillinger [ http:// 
www.workingsimulations.com/ ] was working with a large U.S. company  
that had documents that every employee had to read and understand.  
The company was unwilling to change the documents, but it recognized  
that some employees with low literacy couldn't read them. They asked  
Hillinger to create a software program for the documents so that good  
readers could just read the document, but those who needed assistance  
(with reading or understanding a word, or understanding a process --  
who needed an explanation or example) could choose hyperlinks to  
provide the assistance. This worked for most if not all the  
employees. Since then, there have been other examples of using  
hyperliknks this way on the web. Web-based versions of critical  
government forms, such as the W-4, could be created  with hypertext  
assistance. One key to their success, however, would be field-testing  
them with low-literate adults to see if they work well.

David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcast.net


> On Sat, Sep 6, 2008 at 10:00 AM, David J. Rosen  

> <djrosen at comcast.net> wrote:

> Colleagues,

>

> An article in the Straits Times of Singapore, "Katrina hit US adult

> literacy"  [ http://tinyurl.com/6fhd38 ] , describes how the

> hurricane devastated adult literacy services in New Orleans and the

> slow road to restoration. The author describes a critical set of

> contextualized reading and writing skills -- filling out a government

> form to get housing help after a natural disaster.  A large number of

> adults who need to complete these forms, because they did not learn

> to read and write well in school, cannot do it. The author also looks

> at the other side of the literacy coin: the forms and their

> instructions are needlessly difficult for anyone to read.

>

> For New Orleans, and for the country, we need a four-pronged national

> effort to:

>

> 1) legally require plain English federal government documents,

> especially ones that individuals are expected to complete,

>

> 2) create free national functional context curricula that will help

> adults learn to read and correctly complete specific government forms,

>

> 3) provide local literacy program models where reading and writing

> skills are taught in the highly motivating context of completing the

> form, at times that are convenient for adult learners. Volunteer

> tutors or classroom teachers could be trained to help adults read and

> complete a particular form; in the process they could help some

> adults read and write better; and they could inform the adults about

> opportunities to continue their literacy instruction if they wish to,

> and

>

> 4) provide a well-organized, easy-to-navigate, plain English web site

> that includes:

>        a)  .pdfs of all the government forms so they could be  

> printed out

> as needed,

>        b) the forms in hypertext, with links to written and audio file

> definitions and explanations of technical or legal terms, examples of

> correctly completed sections, and

>             elaborations as needed,

>        c)  a hypertext, step-by-step process for completing each  

> form that

> includes a writing box for responding to each step, resulting in a

> completed form that could be reviewed,

>              printed, and submitted electronically when all the

> steps are finished, and

>        d) careful field-testing with low-literate adults of b)and  

> c) above.

>

> Are there examples or models or 2) , 3) and 4) that already exist? If

> so, could you let me know about them, please?  Thanks.

>

> David J. Rosen

> djrosen at comcast.net

>

>

>

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>

>

> -- 

> Jeanne McGehee

> Literacy Coach-Read to Succeed

> Fannie Battle Day Home

> 911 Shelby Avenue

> Nashville, TN 37206

> Ph: 615-228-6745

> Fax: 615-228-8773

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