Making Documents Readable

The Center for Literacy provides readability and legibility analysis as well as text design services to help create documents that can be read by adults with low literacy. The Center has developed self-help legal assistance documents for the Chicago Bar Foundation, cancer education materials for minority and elderly populations for the University of Chicago Medical School, asthma education materials for Northwestern University’s School of Medicine, and work safety information materials for the Prevention Research Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago. A UIC Center for Literacy analysis on the difficulty of Medicaid information materials carried out for the Sargent Shriver National Center for Poverty Law is now the basis of an important federal court ruling (Memisovski v. Maram, No. 92 C 1982). In addition Readable Documents has been instrumental in advocating for consumer law protection for people with low literacy regarding bank lending and mortgages.

Check out some examples of the documents we have worked on over the years.
Seminole county ballot
VISA credit card application
Florida KidCare

Contact Info:
Timothy Shanahan
Center for Literacy
1040 W. Harrison
Chicago, IL 60607 
Tel: (312) 413-1914
Fax: (312) 413-8082