Why are changes coming?

We know that accessibility matters.

We also know that some of the Impact & Insight Toolkit survey questions might not be suitable for some people with some accessibility needs. We firmly believe that everyone’s voice should be heard when we seek to understand how people experience arts and culture. Therefore, the surveys we offer to arts and cultural organisations should be accessible to these people.

 

What’s coming?

With that in mind, we have put significant resource into revisiting the questions that are inbuilt to Culture Counts, both dimensions and question bank questions. Whilst all inbuilt questions were designed with great consideration, we know that there was space for improvement. Therefore, over the remainder of 2025, we will be adding new and improved questions to Culture Counts.

In addition to adding new linguistically Easy Read questions[1], we will make an improvement to the original questions, meaning that the user will be able to specify the subject. In practice this means that, instead of the Captivation dimension being, ‘It was absorbing and held my attention’, someone using Culture Counts can amend the wording to ‘[Title of event/activity/exhibition] was absorbing and held my attention’. This change reflects the need for specificity, particularly when multiple events take place in the same space.

 

How did we get here?

We have worked with two reputable companies to develop this offer.

Initially, we worked with A2i, who provided a comprehensive review of all the questions. They transcribed the original dimensions and question bank questions to linguistically Easy Read alternatives. They also provided images to accompany the text-based questions, enabling surveys to become fully Easy Read. A consultation with a group of adults with learning difficulties informed this process. The group was provided with a set of original dimensions questions and asked for their opinions about their accessibility and what they found challenging.

Then, we worked with Shift Insight to establish which of the dimensions would need further development and more in-depth testing. Shift Insight conducted cognitive testing with people deemed to benefit the most from Easy Read questions, including those that: are neurodivergent, have a learning difficulty, understand English as an additional language, or other reasons.

These tests explored whether:

1. People understood the meaning of the questions,
2. Different people understood the questions in the same way, and
3. People’s understanding of each question reflected the intended concept.

Another review followed, where Counting What Counts combined their experience of survey building and knowledge of the arts and cultural sector with the expertise of, and intelligence gathered by, A2i and Shift Insight.

We now feel confident in our provision of linguistically Easy Read questions.

 

What does this mean for Toolkit project participants?

Over the coming months, you will notice some changes in your Culture Counts account. These include:

• A linguistically Easy Read version of each dimension being available
• A linguistically Easy Read version of question bank questions being available
• A linguistically Easy Read version of each evaluation template
• Streamlined or removed dimensions where ambiguity or merging concepts existed
• The ability to amend the subject of dimensions (e.g., ‘it’ to ‘your event’s title’)

Of course, a by-product of this work is that there are now more options for you to choose from. We appreciate that this will result in you needing to scroll through more options when choosing dimensions, questions from the question bank, and your template.

Another important consequence relates to the Reporting Dashboard and generated insights. We discussed at length whether people’s responses to the new dimension questions should be considered the same as responses to the originals, and whether we could combine the data for benchmarking.

The honest answer is that we do not know whether people will respond to the linguistically Easy Read dimensions as they do to the original. Therefore, it would not be statistically appropriate for us to do this yet. Over time, as results accumulate, we will decide whether combining them becomes viable. In the meantime, we will build the ability for you to benchmark results to linguistically Easy Read dimensions against results to the original dimensions. The Analytics Dashboard and Insights Reports will consider the dimensions as completely separate questions.

 

Closing words

In advance, we thank you for understanding the rationale for these changes and supporting the decisions we have made.

In time, we will write a report about this work. This will provide you with a detailed background of the steps taken throughout this project.

We will also monitor the use of linguistically Easy Read questions and scrutinise the results to inform further decisions.

By adapting our survey questions to meet the Easy Read accessibility standard, we will lower barriers and ensure more people can share their experiences of arts and culture. This helps organisations capture feedback from a broader and more representative cross-section of the community.

 

 

 

Featured image credit: Studbee on Unsplash

 

 

 

[1] ’Linguistically Easy Read’ – what does this mean?

Easy Read is defined as ‘an accessible way of presenting information that uses simple language, explanations, and supporting images[1]’ (definition from Change People, accessed August 2025). To be truly Easy Read, text should appear in large font and include images.

Due to current limitations in Culture Counts, we cannot incorporate the necessary images or change the font to make the surveys Easy Read. Therefore, the platform questions will use Easy Read language but not Easy Read presentation. Because of this, we describe the new questions as ‘linguistically Easy Read’. We are aware of the complex language being used here and how it is rather ironic, given the context… Please feel free to let us know if you can think of alternative wording which is simpler yet captures the same concept!

Despite the Culture Counts surveys not enabling a truly Easy Read experience, we do have images to accompany the dimensions. Therefore, if your organisation needs fully Easy Read surveys, please do get in touch and we can support you in designing a paper survey, containing both the text and images.