Making information accessible for people with aphasia in healthcare

Abstract

People with aphasia are often unable to access healthcare due to difficulties understanding and using spoken and written language, which impacts every step of their healthcare journey and outcomes. This article argues that it is important to apply the principles of the NHS England Accessible Information Standards (2017) to people with aphasia so they can meet their health information needs and rights. The processes to enable people with aphasia to access and participate in spoken and written communication in healthcare and the methods for training and supporting healthcare staff need to be considered at an individual, service, and organisational level.

A scoping review of the use of visual tools and adapted easy-read approaches in Quality-of-Life instruments for adults

“…It has been identified that people with mild or moderate dementia can provide reliable answers on QOL instruments providing that the methods used to assess QOL support their communication needs [ 29 ]. Research has shown that adapted communication approaches, such as easy-read techniques, or visual representations of concepts can be successfully applied with groups including people living with intellectual disability, post-stroke aphasia, or culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) background to support or replace written communication methods [ 30 – 32 ]. However, the extent to which these approaches have been successfully applied in existing QOL instruments is currently unknown.…”