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Question: Hi,
I am conducting a study aimed at understanding the program and policy priorities of individuals who are eligible for federal food assistance. We are attempting to use a tool called CHAT (https://www.usechat.org/console/CHAT-resources/) which allows study participants to play a game where they prioritize a set of interventions in the context of limited resources (i.e. many more intervention options than the number of points they have to assign to interventions). The interventions are things like improving the grocery store environment, improving school lunches, etc. The challenge is making sure people who participate understand the interventions and also making the game board streamlined enough so that there are not too many options on the board. What tools are out there to make sure our language is accessible? How can we make sure we are meeting participants where they are in terms of describing interventions? Thanks

Answer:

Good Morning Heena, and thanks for contacting CTB.
I think that your question may have to be posed to the developers of CHAT, because it may require modifications within the CHAT program to accomplish accessible language. I found a link to the CHAT help desk: www.kayako.com/Live-Chat-Help/Desk-Solution,
One possible, but awkward, way to determine Readability Level of CHAT language would be to copy examples into Microsoft Word and then check readability level as part of Spell Check. That still doesn't give you a way to change the language used by CHAT.
I hope this helps a little.

Question Date: Mon, 07/02/2018