Downloading PDF

Boosting consultation and engagement through accessibility friendly innovation: Digital easy-read surveys

Boosting consultation and engagement through accessibility friendly innovation: Digital easy-read surveys

Home » Case studies » Boosting consultation and engagement through accessibility friendly innovation: Digital easy-read surveys

By producing easy-read versions of our questionnaires we can improve participation in our engagement and consultation exercises with people who would otherwise be put off by longer, more complicated forms.

Background

Easy-read is a method of presenting written information to make it easier to understand for people with difficulty reading. Easy-read advocates sentences of no more than ten to fifteen words, with each sentence having just one idea and one verb. Active sentences are used instead of passive sentences. Any difficult word or idea is explained in a separate sentence. An easy read document is usually presented in at least 14-point text and includes carefully selected images to help people understand.

Action

This year we developed easy-read versions of the questionnaires and combined them with our online survey tool for even greater accessibility. The survey tool is used to host all of our surveys, but it had not been used to host easy-read versions of the questionnaires before now. We are not aware of anyone doing this before.

As a result, these questionnaires are now accessible online and can be quickly and widely spread to interested individuals and groups via email and social media.

The project was launched six months ago and, so far, we have produced two online easy-read surveys, which are currently live and part of ongoing engagement exercises.

Impact

Hosting the surveys which are prepared in the specialist easy-read format on our online survey tool has increased responses more than 18-fold and provided several other benefits for our clients and their stakeholders. By using the online tool, respondents do not need to send a request for a paper version or download the PDF version to print, complete and post back. The survey is fully accessible online via a click of a button, making it much easier to access and participate in.

The link to the survey can be shared much more easily and this has been particularly useful when working with specific groups or individuals who may or do require the easy-read version, such as people with a learning disability, whose first language isn’t English or who have a lower reading age.

Our easy-read versions have always been visually more engaging for participants, using such tools as photographs and graphics to make them more attractive and understandable. We can now enhance the specialist format further on our online version, using designs and iconography for rating scales (such as smiley faces) to make them more visually appealing and interesting. They also come across as less formal and intimidating to people who might be put off from responding to more official-looking questionnaires which use more complex language.

Feedback

We commissioned NHS Midlands and Lancashire to help design our Mental Health consultation survey. During the planning stage they suggested that we may like them to both design and host on their in-house survey tool an easy-read version of the mental health consultation questionnaire. I was immediately interested but requested an example to review first. I was delighted! I could immediately see the potential benefits of the easy-read version. We have placed the links side by side on our consultation website. The easy read version of the consultation survey has proven far more popular than we initially envisaged. Whilst it still has simplified language and engaging imagery and pictures this has now been extended to a more interactive and impactful approach as things like ratings buttons now have smiley/sad faces. I’m really pleased and definitely feel it is assisting us to engage more effectively with our patients and public.

Sue Venables, Head of Communications and Insight, LLR CCGs

For more information

For more information and to learn how we can help your organisation, please contact us.

View all

News and views

News

Our commitment to ethical sourcing and supplier management

Our Procurement teams – healthcare and goods and services – have once again achieved the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) Corporate Ethics…

News

NHS Midlands and Lancashire shortlisted for the 2024 Patient Experience Network National Awards

We are delighted to announce that NHS Midlands and Lancashire (NHS ML) Nursing and Urgent Care Team has…

News

Join our inaugural ‘SU Insights’ session: Contracting for health outcomes

Join us for the inaugural session of our new event series, ‘SU Insights’, where we’ll explore the evolving…

View all

How we can help health systems

Business enabling services

Delivering a wide range of support functions through transactional services, business partnering and transformation that drives efficiencies and releases value and time…

Learn more about Business enabling services
Business enabling services

Clinical redesign and provider collaboration

Redesigning how health and care works across England - placing people at the centre of their own health and care and utilising…

Learn more about Clinical redesign and provider collaboration
Clinical redesign and provider collaboration

Communications and engagement

Supporting ICSs with approaches to design and deliver effective communication, engagement and behavioural insights as a key enabler for system change and…

Learn more about Communications and engagement
Communications and engagement

Developing health systems

Acting as an independent and trusted partner within the system to facilitate working across stakeholders and integrate elements of the provider system…

Learn more about Developing health systems
Developing health systems

Digitally enabled transformation and IT

Digitising care and partnering with systems for the transformation of digitally enabled service delivery (and other supporting processes) across vision, planning and…

Learn more about Digitally enabled transformation and IT
Digitally enabled transformation and IT

People solutions

Supporting systems to build a sustainable and integrated workforce, transforming systems, organisations and the workforce experience to improve resilience.

Learn more about People solutions
People solutions

Personalised healthcare commissioning services

Providing end-to-end funded care services, including patients as active partners in identifying their healthcare needs and then commissioning care to meet these.…

Learn more about Personalised healthcare commissioning services
Personalised healthcare commissioning services

PHM analytics and decision support

Applying intelligence-led understanding of the health of the population to support the redesign of care and improve patient and financial outcomes across…

Learn more about PHM analytics and decision support
PHM analytics and decision support

Place and primary care transformation

Supporting providers to work together at a place and neighbourhood level to manage common resources, integrate community teams, improve health and reduce…

Learn more about Place and primary care transformation
Place and primary care transformation
MLCSU