Many won't ask for help. Why would they when they are quite aware of the stigma attached to being a non-reader. I'll tell you about one of the translators who works with me. She doesn't read at all. I asked her one day how she managed her grocery shopping. She told me she looked at the pictures on the cans, but she sometimes made a mistake and then, she said, "I have to eat it." But when I asked her if she ever requested help, she laughed and said "Yes. Sometimes I can't reach the things on the high shelves. Then I need someone to get them down for me." Being short is OK, but being illiterate is not.

The process of producing low-literacy materials is very similar to that for any plain language work, I think, but there are particular challenges in this field, apart from trying to reach a simpler level of language. For some people, comprehension is away beyond reading level. For those, plain language is a real advantage. Others can read the words easily, but may not understand them. I can't always guess what might be understood. Also, many have missed out on the life experiences that colour much of the perception of people without intellectual impairments. These events can include graduating from high school, getting a driver's licence, marrying or having children (or even growing up with family). This can affect the interpretation of information, both written and in picture format.

Another problem is that of explaining abstract concepts to people who tend to think in very concrete terms. So, for instance, human rights is difficult to explain. Rights and wrongs, and rights and lefts are more understandable. But while people with developmental disabilities are all too familiar with discrimination, it is often interpreted as the act of a mean individual, not as a systemic problem. We have some wonderful results at times, though, with learning happening in a variety of ways. One woman, who had spent a year in a group learning about rights, had a situation in which a Calgary Transit staff person wouldn't send down an elevator for her at a station where the public was expected to walk up a flight of stairs. His reason was that she didn't look disabled. (She has a brace on her leg, but it is hidden beneath her pants.) She ended up by writing to Calgary Transit. She received an apology and the policies were changed so that anyone asking for the elevator was entitled to have it sent down.

Health is another difficult expression. So is values. I've had values explained to me as meaning jewellery by one of the translators. So there are challenges which can be addressed by plain language, but it is not always a complete answer. There will always be difficulties in overcoming conceptual barriers.

Sometimes there are consistent reading problems I have to work around. For instance, neither choose nor decide seem to be easy words to read. I need to use that inelegant word pick. Or sometimes I can say make up your own mind about....

Another example is chance. I'll show you what I did in one place where the word occurred. I was working on information about dating. The article was about not leaving decisions around having sex to chance and that word was in the title. First of all, I tried Don't take a chance. The translators read it as change. So I changed it to Don't take a risk. But I wasn't happy with that, because risk is so negative. Also, don't was causing problems. I don't contract words any longer. What I ended up with, and it took me three weeks to think of it, was Sex: Make no mistake.

In producing plain language materials, I have been accused of patronising the readers. There is an inherent intellectual elitism in our society that has not yet been seriously addressed the way racism and sexism has. My accusers don't seem to notice they are carefully making out that their reading level is the only normal and acceptable one. Where does that come from if not from assuming fluent readers are superior and slower readers are not OK? I don't use baby words, but I do use the simplest term I can find and I do keep the information as brief and succinct as possible. We talk about disability pride at times when we do translation work together. Several of the translators now attend marches and demonstrations. Most are more prepared to complain about unfair treatment.