If you’re reading this blog, you might, like me, take your ability to read completely for granted. When you go food shopping, you use your reading skills to see which products you want to buy without even thinking about it. When you go out, you can understand bus timetables and road signs. You can find your way around a computer, apply for a job and understand important health information. But millions can’t. Today, let’s celebrate and raise awareness of literacy. Visit worldliteracyfoundation.org to find out more about how you can help, or get on Twitter and join the conversation using #InternationalLiteracyDay
While I’ve always been passionate about reading and writing, and the world of possibilities that these skills open up, I never realised how important literacy was in terms of people’s health, until I came to work at Macmillan. When you’re trying to cope with a cancer diagnosis, clear and accessible information is key. How can you make decisions about treatment if you’re given information you can’t understand? What if you misunderstand the advice given about managing side effects? What if the instructions that come with your medication aren’t clear? Suddenly, the importance of not only providing health information, but providing health information that is clear and accessible, seems very important indeed.
Let’s look at the stats. It’s been found that, in England, health information is too complex for 43% of adults – that’s almost half of us. This figure rises to 61% if the information includes numeracy (such as instructions on when to take tablets).1 And when people struggle to understand health information, we find they experience:
Perhaps this is because the average reading age in the UK is not quite as high as you might think. A survey in 2011 found that 43% of adults have a reading age of 14 or lower:
As one of the biggest providers of cancer information in the UK, it’s obvious that Macmillan needs to make sure its cancer information is clear and accessible. If 85% of adults have a reading age of 11–16, then we need to make sure our publications reflect that fact.
So, over the last few years, the Cancer Information Development team at Macmillan have been focussing on readability, working tirelessly to make Macmillan’s information more accessible. This means using plain English and avoiding jargon, explaining any medical words, using illustrations to explain text, and making sure important points are highlighted clearly. It means explaining things in a very clear, understandable way, but without being patronising or skipping out any detail. It also means providing other formats, such as audio, video and easy read.
We know that taking in information can be hard when you’re facing cancer and all the worries it brings. But we hope that having good quality information will help you make sense of it all, and perhaps give you back some sense of control. Below are links to our cancer information in various formats.
Macmillan’s cancer information online – macmillan.org.uk/information-and-support
Free print publications from Macmillan – be.macmillan.org.uk
Videos and animations about cancer – macmillan.org.uk/cancerinformationvideos
Audiobooks about cancer – macmillan.org.uk/audio
Easy read information about cancer – macmillan.org.uk/easyread
1. Why is health literacy important? http://www.healthliteracy.org.uk/ (accessed 8 September 2015)
