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- Title
Readability of Individuals With Disabilities Education Act Part B Procedural Safeguards: An Update.
- Authors
Gray, Sara A.; Zraick, Richard I.; Atcherson, Samuel R.
- Abstract
The purpose of this study was to analyze the readability of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B procedural safeguard documents, as distributed by each of the 50 U.S. states. Results were compared to the 5th- to 6th-grade readability guideline for documents recommended by experts in health literacy and health communication. Method: A commercially available readability software, Readability Studio (Oleander Software, 2009), was used to assess document readability. Text-based files of each IDEA Part B procedural safeguard document were analyzed using four readability formulas: Flesch-Kincaid (Flesch, 1965), Gunning fog index (Gunning, 1952), Flesch Reading Ease (Flesch, 1948), and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (McLaughlin, 1969). Results: No procedural safeguard document scored below an 11th-grade reading level. Seventy-four percent of these documents were found to be written at a graduate reading level--meaning these documents are written for a reader who is currently enrolled in a master's degree or higher education program. Conclusion: In an effort to decrease barriers to parent participation in the Individualized Education Planning process, those who administer IDEA Part B procedural safeguards should be sensitive to the potential mismatch between the literacy skills of the parent/guardian and the literacy skills needed to comprehend these documents. Developers of IDEA Part B procedural safeguards should account for estimated literacy skills of the general public as ongoing revisions to these safeguards are made.
- Subjects
UNITED States; COMPARATIVE studies; INFORMED consent (Medical law); READABILITY (Literary style); ASSISTIVE technology; SPECIAL education; SOFTWARE architecture; UNITED States. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; PARENTAL notification (Medical law); HEALTH literacy
- Publication
Language, Speech & Hearing Services in Schools, 2019, Vol 50, Issue 3, p373
- ISSN
0161-1461
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1044/2018_LSHSS-18-0057