Page 59 - THE DUTCH TALKING TOUCH SCREEN QUESTIONNAIRE

Development of the Dutch Talking Touch Screen Questionnaire
INTRODUCTION
People in modern western information societies are expected to become more and more self-reliant and experience increasing demands of proactivity and problem-solving ability [1, 2]. However, large groups, in particular people with low literacy, lack the necessary skills to do so. In the Netherlands, the level of literacy of approximately thirteen percent of the adult population is too low to be able to function adequately in society [3]. Besides low literacy, this group generally also suffers from low numeracy and low problem solving skills, which are considered the three core skills needed for societal participation. Literacy is defined as the use of printed and written information to achieve personal goals and to develop personal knowledge and skills. Prose and document literacy refer to two aspects of literacy. Prose literacy is similar to the ‘classical’ view of literacy; the knowledge and skills required for reading, understanding and applying longer pieces of text, such as letters, news items, brochures and manuals. Document literacy refers to ‘concentrated’ text types, such as admission forms, paychecks, public transport time schedules, maps, tables and graphs. Numeracy is the knowledge and skills that are necessary to effectively deal with numbers in various situations, for example counting money, understanding proportions, percentages, statistical information, tables and graphs. Problem solving skills involve thinking and acting in situations with a reasonably well-defined goal, though no available routine solutions. The problem solver needs to be able to understand the problem situation and change it through planning and reasoning [3].
One specific problem area where all three skills are relevant is filling in forms and questionnaires, which are omnipresent in all societal domains where self-reliance is advocated. Being able to fill in forms and questionnaires is a prerequisite for, for example, meeting legal obligations (e.g. tax forms), making use of services (e.g. health care), ordering products, filing complaints and voicing one’s opinion (e.g. voting). Forms, whether offered on paper or digitally, are usually text- oriented and presented in a concentrated format which is hard to grasp for low literate persons. In particular document literacy skills are relevant in this respect. Numeracy is required, e.g., for understanding scales with answer possibilities, such as Likert scales or grades. Problem solving skills are needed for understanding the rationale for filling in the questionnaire, the nature and relevance of one’s input (e.g.,
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