‘Tis the season—open enrollment season that is! This is the time of year when we can enroll in or change our health plans. But making decisions about health insurance can be difficult. A 2023 Kaiser Family Foundation Survey found that half of insured adults have a hard time understanding their health insurance.

Every October 13th we celebrate International Plain Language Day. This day was set aside in 2011 to commemorate the anniversary of the Plain Writing Act, which requires the use of plain language in U.S. government materials. Plain language is simply communication that an audience can understand the first time they read or hear it.

October is Health Literacy Month—a time for health care professionals to promote practices and policies that enable patients to understand and use health information to improve their health.

Have you ever wondered if you communicated your main points well to your patient, client, or others you serve? Or thought, that despite your best efforts, they didn’t understand what you were trying to say? It’s possible that some people don’t get your messages because they struggle with low health literacy.

Let’s say you’ve used plain language best practices to create high-quality health education material that is easy to read, understand, and use. Now you want to share this material with Spanish speakers, so you have it translated. How do you know the translated material uses plain language like the source material?

By: Alison Caballero, MPH, CHES, Associate Professor, Director, Center for Health Literacy, in anticipation of retirement on June 30, 2023 Read More