Determining IALS Level

When all the processing factors for a task have been rated, they should be totalled and compared with the typical complexity value ranges to estimate an IALS level.

For Complex Documents

If the document is being considered is unusually complex, rate its complexity using the PMOSE/IKIRSCH Document Readability Formula. Add to the rating for cognitive processing (on all tasks required by the document) according to the following scheme:

Notes

In quantitative tasks, it is assumed that the ‘type of information’ will always be amounts or quantities, so this factor is ignored for these tasks.

If the combined ratings of a task exceed 16, it is clearly off the IALS scale. The IALS scale was calibrated to ‘observed’ literacy skills among the general population and does not address the extremes of literacy complexity. Undoubtedly there are tasks that can only be completed by people with skills above level 5 (some very small number of Canadians).