COVID-19 Materials for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
CDC National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, CDC identified a need to educate Spanish- and English-speaking adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and their caregivers about protective behaviors. To meet this need, the CH team developed a suite of materials — on topics like masking, social distancing, vaccines, handwashing, and testing — in both Spanish and English. To ensure these materials were culturally relevant and accessible, CH pioneered a new transcreation process, with our Spanish- and English-language content strategists working side by side to maintain consistency across all materials. In addition, we developed some materials in Spanish first and made sure they featured Hispanic characters. In 2022, we continued this work by creating materials about booster vaccines for adults with IDD and their caregivers. In total, we created more than 20 materials, including social stories, posters, fact sheets, and animated videos — one of which has had more than 170,000 views.
In collaboration with CDC and RTI International, CH created a suite of highly visual videos, social stories, posters, and interactive materials to communicate with people with intellectual disabilities and extreme low literacy about preventing COVID-19. Based on feedback from multiple rounds of testing with adults who have intellectual disabilities and their caregivers, we refined our approach — and contributed to the development of a product development guide on visual communication best practices to reach people with intellectual disabilities and extreme low literacy.