When I write for this readership, my aim is to produce materials that are accessible for people who can read a little but are by no means fluent. These are the people I ask to work with me in testing the writing. In my experience, you may have to search out people with more limited literacy skills, as neither they nor their support staff think of themselves as readers. It is very easy to employ people who are comfortable reading, but then we may not notice some problem spots in the documents.

For people who cannot read at all, simple materials can still be useful, as such materials give support staff a simple way to explain things. It is perfectly possible to have people who do not read at all in the testing group we work with, as long as they are not the only people on the team. Non-readers enable us to test how comprehensible our texts are when read aloud. Of course, I would never claim that print materials are the only way to communicate information. They are just one tool.

Organizing the meeting
For a team “translation” meeting, I keep it to no more than two hours. (I say “translation” because it is more than just having people agree with what you have written. It is a re-creation of the document. Some people call it “transformation.”) One and a half hours is even better. The concentration needed is tiring. Two or three people plus the facilitator is a good size for the team. With bigger groups, some people are more likely to stay quiet and not participate. I try to have team members with various levels of reading ability.

Participants take turns reading the text aloud, if they are able, and then we discuss what the words mean. I ask them to tell me what the sentence means, rather than simply asking whether they understand it. If they can explain in their own words, I know they have understood well. Sometimes they will explain by telling a story to illustrate their understanding. One person, for instance, when I asked her if she knew what shoplifting was, told me without the slightest hesitation that she had been arrested a couple of times! If there is a problem with a word or phrase, we talk about it and see if together we can come up with something that is clearer. As one translator put it, “It’s better to work in a group than just with one person, because everyone can think, and it’s not wrong”^{Footnote 1}

Sometimes one person can tell the others what something means. Sometimes it is necessary to leave a particularly difficult passage and come back to it later. Many times someone will suggest a word that may be close, but not quite right, but it may trigger a better word.

It is important to make sure no one feels put down during a translation session. Participants must feel they can speak up without being criticized. It needs to be a safe place, and sometimes that takes time to develop. This is why it is helpful to employ the same people regularly, and to pay them adequately. They are the experts in what they understand, and, as a writer, I am using their skills.