Forward

The Government of Canada is committed to delivering quality services to Canadians. That means producing documents which communicate clear information about rules, decisions, and regulations. Public documents should allow Canadians to have easy access to information which will allow them to understand their obligations and receive their entitlements.

The results of the International Adult Literacy Survey, published by Statistics Canada, show that 48% of adult Canadians have limited literacy proficiency, and that members of this group are found in all socioeconomic divisions in our society. This knowledge has forced us all to take another look at our information products and their suitability for the general population.

This guide will help information designers to assess the complexity of literacy tasks associated with printed and electronic information. The results of these assessments will help us to improve the usability of information products, as well as to determine if the products meet the needs of the intended audience.

Michel Gauthier
Income Security Programs
Human Resources Development Canada

Acknowledgements

This guide has been adapted primarily from published source documents written by Irwin Kirsch and Peter Mosenthal. Thanks is extended to them for pioneering this approach to analyzing literacy tasks and profiling literacy skills. Additional thanks are offered to Peter Mosenthal for his interest in this project and his additions to the complexity rating tools.

Thanks to Michel Gauthier at Human Resources Development Canada for being such a champion of plain language and good document design.

Thanks to the TOWES development team, past and present: Lynda Fownes, Conrad Murphy, Elizabeth Thompson, Stan Jones and Sheila Whincup for many discussions about the complexities of literacy.

Thanks to Statistics Canada for allowing the reproduction of items from the International Adult Literacy Survey. Thanks also to the Test of Workplace Essential Skills for permission to reproduce a sample problem set.

Lastly, thanks to the National Literacy Secretariat, for funding the production of this guide. Appreciation is also extended to Sylvie DesRosiers and Sawson Sharaf at the NLS for their insight and advice as this guide took shape.