Our visual consent forms now out as Creative Commons
SensJus recently launched an 'experiment'. As our research often addresses participants who may have a low literacy level, we realized that standard consent forms were not meaningful for the aim of achieving an aware participation and informed consent. Therefore, we realized, together with an artist, forms that combine visuals and text. With the help of colleagues, prospect research participants and experts, we refined the text to make it more accessible.
The forms are available as non-commercial creative commons resources. Clicking on the PARTICIPANT INFORMATION SHEET and a CONSENT FORM, you can access and edit the forms and use the images contained therein, adapting the text (especially that highlighted in grey and the project description) for your purposes. We recommend that the forms are always accompanied by an (in person or virtual) colloquial exchange between researcher and participant to respond to any doubt and question.
We also realized fully visual consent flows (below) and fillable versions of the forms (available on request), which are useful in case of unforeseen occurrences on field.
The forms and images have been translated into Italian (see FOGLIO INFORMATIVO and CONSENSO INFORMATO). Below also the fully visual forms in Italian.
At this folder you can find all images used, also as editable in Krita and in PhotoShop.
We are striving for making the forms accessible in many more languages so if you would like to translate the forms in your own language, please do reach us! For example, Web2Learn translated the forms into Greek for a citizen science initiative engaging the deaf community.
Do you have any advice to share with us on the overall approach or specifically on the forms? Would you like to help us translate the forms in other languages? Please contact us at:
Anna BERTI SUMAN: Anna.BERTI-SUMAN@ec.europa.eu
Sven SCHADE: s.schade@ec.europa.eu
If you would like to cite these forms, use the following DOI: 10.53962/qnyw-vvcd
The forms are under a CC BY 4.0 - Creative Commons Attribution Licence. If you use the forms, please give credits to SensJus - Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant n. 891513.
Acknowledgements:
We would like to especially thank the following colleagues and teams who helped us in refining the forms: DGT, and in particular the CLEAR-WRITING TEAM (contact: DGT-CLEAR-WRITING@ec.europa.eu), DGT EDIT (contact: DGT-EDIT@ec.europa.eu), Geraldine MCKENNA and David ALFORD; the JRC REB and in particular Susanne BREMER-HOFFMANN and Ute LIESER; the JRC DATA PROTECTION COORDINATOR; Ignacio SANCHEZ; Rosanna DI GIOIA; Miriam GIUBILEI; Emilia GOMEZ; Lorena HERNANDEZ. We also would like to thank the participants of the Brocher Workshop, Geneva (https://www.brocher.ch/en/events/417/health-citizen-science-dilemmas-under-the-gdpr) that offered their feedback on the forms.
About the artist we worked with:
The images and graphic design of the forms have been curated by Bela Pinheiro. Bela is an illustrator based in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, passionate by visual storytelling for children and adults. Bela has also a degree in Law from the University of Rio de Janeiro. For her Master degree on Theory and Philosophy of Law at the same institution, she's currently studying the relevance of children's books illustrations on the context of literacy as a fundamental human right.
For contact and further information, see: