PDFs and links to other resources

Readability resources for consent forms

The AHRQ Informed Consent and Authorization Toolkit for Minimal Risk Research (from the Association for Health Research & Quality)
Scientific and Technical Information Simply Put (from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention)
Simplification of Informed Consent Documents (from the National Cancer Institute; no PDF available)
Universal Use of Short and Readable Informed Consent Documents: How Do we Get There? (from the American Association of Medical Colleges)

Readability assessment tools

Suitability Assessment of Materials (from Teaching Patients with Low Health Literacy, by Doak, Doak, and Root; now out of print, but can be accessed on the Harvard health literacy website)
Design Readability Scorecard (from healthcommunications.org)

Journal article on consent form readability

Readability Standards for Informed-Consent Forms as Compared with Actual Readability. Paasche-Orlow, et al., N Engl J Med. 2003 Feb 20;348(8):721-6.