How to make easy read documents accessible

What is easy read?

Easy read uses pictures and short sentences to help people with learning disabilities understand information. It can also help people who have a low literacy level or who use English as a second language.

Although some people with learning disabilities can read and understand easy read information independently, others will still need help. For example, a carer might use easy read content as a tool to help explain information to the person they support.

Creating easy read documents

Writing good-quality easy read documents is a skilled task.

You should only create easy read documents if you have completed easy read training.

When to use an external easy read provider

If you need an easy read version of a complicated or technical document, you should ask an easy read provider to create this for you. This will ensure that difficult concepts or phrases are explained accurately.

Meeting web accessibility regulations

Easy read documents must meet the same accessibility regulations as other documents we upload to our websites.

If you need to create an easy read document, this guide will show you how to make sure it meets:

The needs of easy read users
The web content accessibility guidelines

We have created a checklist you can use to make sure documents you or your easy read provider have created are accessible.

Support to create accessible documents

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team can help you create accessible Word, PowerPoint and PDF documents for a small fee.

They will make sure your documents meet web accessibility regulations and other accessibility needs. This will ensure as many people as possible can access your documents - including people who are blind, D/deaf or who have learning difficulties.

The service is charged in 15 minute intervals and costs:

£30 per hour for internal Norfolk County Council customers
£99 per hour for external customers

To request this service, contact the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team on accessibility@norfolk.gov.uk.

Checklist

You need to do manual and automatic checks to make sure your easy read document is accessible.

Before you convert your document to a PDF check that it:

Was created in Word or InDesign - not PowerPoint
Is portrait oriented
Uses a standard easy read layout
Is written in short, clear sentences
Uses easy read images which are marked as decorative
Uses descriptive link text
Includes a link to the original content (if it is an alternative version)

Once you've converted your document to a PDF, follow our how to check a PDF is accessible guide. This includes how to run an automatic accessibility check with Adobe Acrobat Pro.

Use Word or Adobe InDesign to create easy read documents

Easy read documents that we add to our websites should be created in Microsoft Word.

You can also use Adobe InDesign if you have access to this software for your role.

Adobe's guide on creating accessible PDFs using InDesign
Accessible PDFs basics articles (go to the InDesign specific tutorials section)
University of Sussex guide on creating accessible InDesign documents

Don't use PowerPoint

Easy read trainers and providers often promote PowerPoint as the preferred tool for creating easy read documents. This is because it's easy to arrange images and text boxes in an easy read layout in PowerPoint.

However, we do not upload PowerPoint files (or PDFs of PowerPoint files) to our websites. Our guidance explains why we don't add PowerPoint files to our website.

Try to use portrait orientation

Most visitors use mobile devices to view our websites, so it's usually better to use portrait orientation for your documents.

Portrait oriented documents display better on mobile devices, reducing the need for users to zoom or scroll to access information in the document.

Use a standard easy read layout

Images in easy read documents should go to the left of the words they support - so the user "reads" the image before the text.

Don't use tables to layout blocks of images and text. You can find advice on layout in:

How to create an easy read layout in Word

Adding images in Word documents can cause the text to move around to fit the image.

To avoid this issue, move the Left Indent towards the centre of the page in your Word document. This is around 7.5cm on a standard A4 portrait page layout. You can do this by:

Opening the Layout menu and typing 7.5cm in the Left field under Indent, or
Selecting the Left Indent marker on the ruler at the top of the page and dragging it across to the 7.5cm mark

You will now be able to:

Add left-aligned text down the right-hand side of the page
Add your easy read images to the left of your text without affecting the layout of the text

Write in short, clear sentences

Writing easy read documents is a skilled task that requires training. It is not the same as writing in plain English.

Easy read information should:

Be written in short, clear sentences
Not include more than one piece of information in each sentence
Use easy words. For example, write "doctor" instead of "general practitioner"
Not use difficult words or jargon. If this is unavoidable, explain what the difficult word means in easy words - either on the same page or in a glossary
Explain what acronyms stand for unless they are very common. For example: "Your CCG will have information booklets around health. CCG means Clinical Care Commissioning Group. This is your local health authority."
Not use abbreviations - write "for example" instead of "eg"
Not use contractions - write "cannot" instead of "can't"

You can find advice on writing and formatting easy read content in:

You can use the Hemingway app to check how easy your content is to read. For easy read content, you should aim for a readability level between grade 4 to grade 6.

Use easy read images and mark them as decorative

The images in easy read documents are there as a visual tool to help the user understand the text. Having alt text for an image read out by a screen reader would not support the user in the same way - and could even be confusing.

For this reason, you must:

Make sure that any important information in the images is also included in the document text, and
Mark the images as decorative. Microsoft Office explain how to mark images as decorative in a Word document.

Getting easy read images

You are responsible for sourcing appropriate easy read images for your content. The Digital Customer Experience Team don't subscribe to any easy read image libraries, so cannot provide easy read images. Some NCC services subscribe to photosymbols.com for their easy read images.

You need to be careful when selecting images. Make sure each image reflects what the text it accompanies is saying.

Read advice on choosing and using easy read images in:

Use descriptive link text

You must use descriptive link text for any links in the main body of your easy read document.

You can provide a list of full URLs at the end of your document, so that they can be used by someone using a printed version of the document.

Using easy read documents as alternative versions

If the easy read document is being provided as an alternative version of an existing document or web page, we recommend:

You include a link to the original web page, or the web page where the original document is hosted, in your easy read version
You include "easy read version" in the document title and file name. This helps show users that there's another version that may suit their needs better
You add a link to your easy read version on the original web page, or the web page where the original document is hosted

Convert your easy read document to an accessible PDF

When you have finished your easy read document, you must convert it to a tagged PDF before it can be shared online:

Once you've converted your document to a PDF, follow our how to check a PDF is accessible guide. This includes how to run an automatic accessibility check with Adobe Acrobat Pro.

How to make easy read documents accessible