[community] Cognitive access / simplified documents

[Foster, Julia]

I'm not a speech language pathologist, so don't have significant expertise in symbol based communication, but I should have clarified that this is for a population who uses augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices, a number of which are symbol based. Good point that you added re cognitive load because it's good to note that it might not be ideal for everyone and just like anything one format might increase the cognitive load for one person and decrease it for another person. Not being an AAC user, I can't comment, but I assume for at least some AAC users, it would decreased the cognitive load, as it I think it was created by speech language pathologists with expertise in the area of symbol selection. 

So it's not plain English, but it is another example of different ways to format information. I don't know much about graphic design, but perhaps this highlights more need for collaboration between AAC and graphic design for mutual benefit/increased undertanding?

Julia

Julia Foster, MscOT, OT Reg. (Ont.)
Coordinator, Vision Technology Service
Inclusive Design Research Centre

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________________________________________
From: Ambrose Cheuk-Wing Li [al12si at student.ocadu.ca]
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2016 4:18 PM
To: Foster, Julia
Cc: Inclusive Design Community
Subject: Re: [community] Cognitive access / simplified documents

Personally I find the “Easy English” format very distracting and
extremely difficult to read. The format also violates several graphic
design principles and I am surprised they expect this to be easy to
understand. Instead of reducing cognitive load I would have expected
this to *increase* cognitive load (having to constantly ignore various
forms of active emphasis, for example, or constantly flipping backward
to find the beginning of the sentence).

I'm also curious what the relationship this has with Plain English.


On Tue, Aug 9, 2016 at 2:19 PM, Foster, Julia <jfoster at ocadu.ca> wrote:
> Just wanted to share a nice example of an easy to read version for the ISAAC conference<https://www.isaac-online.org/english/conference-2016/code-of-conduct/> code of conduct:
>
> *         Full format<https://www.isaac-online.org/english/conference-2016/code-of-conduct/>
>
> *         Easy format (PDF)<https://www.isaac-online.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Final-Easy-English-ISAAC-CoC.pdf>
> I didn't test it with a screenreader, so for screen reader users, the images are symbols to represent the text they stand beside (something an individual who communicates through symbols or symbols and words might use).
>
> Julia Foster, MScOT, OT Reg. (Ont.)
> Coordinator, Vision Technology Service & SNOW
> Inclusive Design Research Centre
> 205 Richmond ST. W., 2nd Floor, Toronto, ON M5V 1V3
>
> Telephone: 416 977 6000 x3966<tel:416%20977%206000%20x3966>
> Fax: 416 977 9844<tel:416%20977%209844>
> Email: jfoster at ocadu.ca<mailto:jfoster at ocadu.ca>
>
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