Eliminating Literacy Bias in Public Information
Nearly 740 million adults globally lack the basic skills required to understand complex written information, yet most public-facing communication exceeds this level. Information accessibility is a prerequisite for effective public policy, health communication, and civic engagement.
The Problem
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Public & institutional texts are often complex and can suffer from literacy bias
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This creates unintentional barriers to public inclusion, perpetuating inequity
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Mis-information travels fast, making credible information harder to stick
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If the public can’t understand what’s being said, they can’t act on it
Learning Objectives
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Identify language that reduces comprehension across sentence structure, vocabulary, & organization
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Evaluate communication using evidence-based metrics (e.g., readability, lexical frequency) & real-world examples
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Apply practical strategies to rewrite complex information clearly without losing meaning
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Leave with tools to communicate complex ideas with clarity and impact
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Unlike traditional literacy efforts that improve reading skills, this course improves the accessibility of the information itself
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Public communicators, literacy forums, social workers, non-profits, public institutions & real-world institutional document owners
Expected Outcomes
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Increased comprehension of public-facing documents
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Improved engagement with critical information
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Reduced exclusion due to linguistic complexity
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Scalable across policy, healthcare, and education systems