Leveraging Technology to Reduce Literacy Barriers on Social Health Screening Tools: Implications for Human Service Professionals and Administrators

Abstract Human service professionals help people develop skills to become self-sufficient and optimally function. To do so, social health screening tools help in understanding clients’ needs; however, discrepancies can lead to gaps in service. One reason for incomplete screening data is low literacy, which is a barrier to understanding screening items on a self-report questionnaire. Leveraging technology to include pictorial representations and voice-to-text features minimizes barriers. The results from this pilot study of 86 people found technology enhanced features and pictorial representations aided in understanding the social health screening tool questions. Implications for how human service organizations can improve social health screening tools conclude.