Not too long ago, the idea of universal accessibility—where information is truly available to everyone, regardless of ability—felt like a distant dream.

For much of history, public information displays were simply inaccessible to the deaf or blind, and even dedicated accessibility solutions—like braille, easy read formats, and audio recordings—only addressed specific needs in isolation.

Co-production is a term that gets thrown around a lot in the world of Easy Read document creation. Many services claim to involve ‘experts by experience’—people with lived experience of learning difficulties, autism, or language comprehension challenges—but often, their role is limited to checking pre-prepared documents rather than shaping them from the start.

At IC Works, we know that Easy Read documents should be clear, accessible, and respectful. But too often, Easy Read materials rely on cartoonish imagery and child-like design choices—a style that many assume is necessary but can actually feel patronising to the adults who rely on these documents.

If AI ever woke up in a cold sweat from a bad dream, it’d be over Easy Read pictures. Seriously, if you think AI-generated transcription has its limitations, wait until you try to get it to handle imagery. What looks like a promising tool at first glance quickly becomes a maddening exercise in frustration—and sometimes outright hilarity.

Let’s talk about the big, awkward question: Can AI turn formal documents into Easy Read? The answer is tricky. It’s not a simple yes or no—it’s more like no, but also yes, sort of. AI isn’t about to take over the entire Easy Read process, but it does have a role to play, especially at the preliminary transcription stage. Let me explain.

Have you ever looked at an Easy Read document and thought, This doesn’t feel all that… easy? You’re not alone. A lot of so-called Easy Read materials still miss the mark. They’re packed with simplified language and pictures, sure—but somehow they still leave the people that really need them very confused or struggling to make sense of the information.

We’ve been really busy since 2021 developing new services, accessible formats and new ways of co-producing Easy Read documents. We’ve also started to employ staff, become a Living Wage Employer and a Committed Disability Confident Employer.

At a time in recent history when information and messaging more than ever needs to be direct and easy to understand, it’s gratifying to find excellent quality information aimed at people with learning disabilities.

After shooting a heap of video a few months ago we finally got round to editing the footage last week for Hate Crime Awareness Week. The result was two very engaging videos featuring Sanjay solo and Jide and Desmond as a double header.

IC Works has been partnering with self-advocacy group Camden People First on the production of Easy Read Documents since the beginning of 2016.

Since IC Works and Camden People First, first started working together in February 2016 we have forged a strong working relationship with Pete and Karl at Photosymbols.

Barking and Dagenham Council are changing the way they deliver social services. One way to make this process more accessible to local people is the production of a roadmap that shows, pictorially, key life stages from pregnancy to end of life.

In December 2016, there was a panoply of updates to Office 365 that will make it much easier to create accessible content using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook and Vision.

The first EasyRead+ document that IC Works produced with Camden People First was a research participant paper for Sheffield University.

We aim to provide the best easy read services in town so we've joined forces with a respected advocacy group , providers of self-advocacy, one-to-one advocacy, peer and group advocacy services.

At the end of 2015 we produced 2 Easy Read projects for high speed train company HS2.

Accessible PDFs are another member of the accessible format family and you may have heard the term but do you know what they are?

With one eye on a Care Quality Commission inspection and another on the Care Act 2014 the canny proprietor of Oakhaven Residential Care Home, Ralph Holland, asked us to produce an Easy Read Service User Guide.

We spent a good chunk of the post-Christmas period creating a brand new easy-read-document.com website using the SquareSpace platform.

Easy-read-documents.com has been the Easy Read provider for Transport for London (TfL) for a while and we wanted to share with you a testimonial that we recently received from an organisation that genuinely puts accessibility at the heart of everything they do.