Last week we saw a video in class that discussed literacy and the difficulties that people encountered due to limited English skills, literacy, complexity of the language to name a few.
I can really relate to the health literacy video. In my previous job, I did home visits to interview teens that were interested in having a mentor. Many of the teens I visited were Hispanic and their parents at times had very limited English. As I got to know these families and they began asking me for help to translate paperwork, bills, filling out housing applications, school forms that although were in spanish, were too complicated and hard to digest.
A lot of the time, I was not sure what some of the forms were asking for, the language was complicated and the terminology was not explained clearly. I know its important to cover all your basis when it comes to liability issues,getting consent forms, signing waivers, but at what cost? who is it really for? should there be the complicated paperwork and then the cliff note version attached for the reader?
I think we need to be creative on how we present information and keep reminding ourselves that we have an obligation to inform the public and make sure our message is not only thorough, but clearly understood.