Do you know how clients like to get information?
Have you reviewed your communications?
What is the literacy level of the communications?
What is your plan to revise how you communicate?
Are your processes sensitive to literacy?
Do you have a glossary of terms?
Do you understand plain language?
Will you test material with clients?
Will you find out about best practices?
People who have trouble reading cannot easily understand—or only with a lot of difficulty—most of tribunals’ written brochures, pamphlets, instructions, and forms. The words and sentences are too complicated. But tribunals and courts use mainly written material to communicate with their clients.
It isn’t much better when we speak—the words we choose are often hard to understand.
So the challenge is to look at all the ways we communicate with clients. We can then decide what would be the best way of making them clearer, simpler, and easier to understand.