Easy Read quick start guide

This quick start guide offers an overview of the key things you need to know in order to get your first Easy Read activity online.

You can follow the general Citizen Space quick start guide to help you get logged in and the activity added. Once you start building your activity, this guide will help you with the Easy Read activity-specific actions.

Overview page

The Overview page structure is very different to the standard structure.

The Overview is now a single column, rather than 2 columns, with the Dates and Contact details underneath the Overview heading rather than on the right hand side, with much of the default sections and copy translated for Easy Read.

It follows this order:

• 'Overview' title - renamed 'About this survey'
• Dates - Only one date is listed (When open: This survey closes on [close date] / When forthcoming: This survey opens on [open date] / When closed: This survey closed on [close date])
• Overview copy (including default sentence)
• Contact details - Only Name, Email, and/or Phone will appear (Job title and Team name can be filled out, but will not be visible on the frontend)
• Call to Action - default text: 'Survey - Tell us what you think'
• 'Related' section - renamed 'Useful information'.

Default content

There are pre-built pages and content in the Easy Read template including:

• Overview
• Easy Read survey pages
• Nearly there (Almost done) page
• Confirmation page

How to add more Easy Read content blocks

To add more information and content throughout the activity you will need to embed an Easy Read content block (which we call a 'shortcode' in Citizen Space).

It is similar to how you would add an image or a fact bank, but in this case it makes it easy to add the text and associated image in the correct formatting and styling for Easy Read.

Follow these steps to add an Easy Read content block:

1. In the text editor box on your Overview or Survey page (navigate to 'Add an Easy Read survey page section to find out how to add a page) , select Embed... and a dropdown will appear.
2. Select Easy Read block. A grey box will appear which has space for an image on the left and copy on the right.
3. To add an image, double click on the grey box and a standard image upload will appear. You can either link to an existing image URL or upload a new image. Note: Generally alt text is not required for Easy Read surveys since Easy Read images are purely decorative to further convey the meaning of the text.
4. Once you have added an image, select OK.
5. To add copy, select inside the white rectangle within the Easy Read block and start typing.

Add an Easy Read Survey page

Adding an Easy Read survey page follows the same process as adding a standard page. However, the Embed... dropdown will give you the option to add an Easy Read block.

To add an Easy Read page:

1. Go to Design and build and select Build activity from the dropdown menu.
2. Select Add a new Easy Read page from the sidebar, add a title and save.

3. You can add content to this page within the text editor box.

   See the section 'How to add more Easy Read content blocks' for how to add Easy Read content.

How to add Easy Read questions

Adding questions to an Easy Read activity follows the same process as adding standard questions to any other survey-based activity. However, the Add question page has more fields to complete including image upload, alt text, and option to include additional text.

1. Go to Design and build and select Build activity from the dropdown menu.
2. Select Add a new Easy Read page from the sidebar, add a title and save, or select an existing Easy Read page to which you'd like to add a question.
3. Select Add an Easy Read question from the selected page's sidebar menu.
4. Complete the 'Add Easy Read question' form and select Save question.

For full details, check out our article on adding Easy Read questions.

How to add Easy Read answer components

The Easy Read activity type has specific Easy Read versions of Citizen Space standard answer component options.

1. Either add an Easy Read question or select the question title in the Build Activity sidebar. 
2. From the dropdown list of answer components, select the appropriate Easy Read answer component option for your question.
3. Complete the component form and select 'Add component'.

Learn more about the available Easy Read components.

Activity settings

Some things to know and do prior to publishing your Easy Read activity.

• Contact details will only show the Name, Email and/or Phone. Any additional details, like Team Name or Job title will not display.
• Double check mailing list is turned off.
• If using Interests, we recommend adding an interest for Easy Read. This makes it easy to collate an Easy Read section on your homepage or other Page specific for Easy Read activities. Speak to your customer success manager to learn more.

Things to note about the Easy Read activity type:

• No 'Save and return' option.
• No option to switch to a non-linear survey.
• Mailing list signup turned off by default.
• Interests, Audiences and Areas do not display from the overview page, though if enabled are still required to set in Activity Settings.
• No email confirmation of response submission (as an Easy Read confirmation response is not available).
• Currently the template is only available in English.