In September 2024, Disability Equality Scotland helped to start the UK Easy Read Standards Working Group.
There are over 50 people in this group, from over 30 organisations that work with Easy Read users.
We are working together to make Easy Read a good communication experience for anyone in the UK who needs or chooses it.
What Easy Read is
Easy Read is an accessible communication format. It uses:
- Simple language
- Pictures
- A clear layout.
Easy Read was developed by and for people with a learning disability.
Why Easy Read is important
Easy Read supports:
- Independence
- Access to information
- Inclusion and participation.
Easy Read is
- Helpful for people with many different impairments and circumstances.
- A predictable, practical and trusted communication format.
Why we need Easy Read standards
Easy Read is produced by lots of different people and organisations in the UK.
Easy Read users need a consistent and reliable communication format.
Easy Read users deserve consistently high-quality communication.
We want everyone in the UK to understand:
- What Easy Read is
- How Easy Read communicates
- Why Easy Read is important.
Our standards are a way to:
- Share ideas from all the good Easy Read work that is already going on
- Make sure that all UK Easy Read is high quality and useful for its readers
- Make sure that new Easy Read writers can write Easy Read in a way that we know works well.
The standards aim to represent the most usual way of doing things when writing Easy Read in the UK.
We know that there is no 1 correct way to write Easy Read. Different audiences need different ways of writing, and Easy Read writers need to make decisions that are right for their readers – this means that writers need to work closely with readers.
Our process
Since 2024, we have:
- Shared our Easy Read experience and built relationships
- Written a draft of our Standards: 39 precise and separate pieces of guidance
- Been testing and reviewing these Standards with Easy Read users since September 2025.
Coming next:
- In August 2026 we will update the Standards based on our testing.
- In October 2026 we will launch the UK Easy Read Standards to the public.
- In the future, we will continue to review and update the standards.
©2026 Disability Equality Scotland