Appendix 7: Assembling an A3 communication book

As Ability World sell an A3 communication easel, producing a larger size communication book has now become an option. However, as the resulting communication book is big and bulky, this option is only recommended if A4 sized material has been found to be inaccessible for a learner. The advice of a QTVI (Qualified Teacher of the Visually Impaired) should be sought if possible.

The A3 communication easel is available from Ability World's website here.

Assembly instructions for A3 - special considerations

Create your pages using the templates provided and follow the instructions in the section Assembly instructions. See below for some special additional considerations when printing at A3 size.

Check printer settings

Before printing, check that the printer settings are set to A3. Use the printing option Fit or Fit to printable area.

A screenshot of a printer dialogue box showing suggested settings for printing A3 pages

Alternatively, you could scale up – try 135%.

You may find using the software Adobe Acrobat Reader gives you more printing options.

Finding the central point

Before laminating, find the central point of any full landscape pages along the top of the sheet and mark discreetly with a pen/pencil. You could find the central point by folding carefully, by using a ruler or by lining up with another sheet which you have already marked.

A3 page folded in half at the top to find the central point.

Central point marked with a small pen mark

Hole punching

For pages which require 4 holes (i.e., title, menu and core pages at earlier stages and all pages from Stage 4 if using the standard layout), line the central point of the page up with the central point of the hole punch.

The marked central point is aligned with the central point on the four hole punch

For pages which require 3 holes (i.e., topic pages at the earlier stages) you will need to find the correct hole positioning to ensure the pages line up to the right-hand side. You will need to go through the process here once, but you can then place a guidance line on your 4-hole punch for all further pages which will speed things up considerably!

First, take a laminated topic page and line it up on the right-hand side with a laminated, hole punched landscape page that has the central point visibly marked.

A laminated topic page is lined up with the right-hand side of a laminated,, hole punched landscape page that has the central point visibly marked.

Copy the central point onto the topic page.

Copy the mark onto the topic page.

Now line up the transferred mark with the central point on the 4-hole punch.

Line up the transferred mark with the central point on the 4-hole punch

Punch 3 holes into the topic page.

The transferred mark is aligned with the central point of the 4-hole punch

A topic page punched with 3 holes alongside a 4-hole punched landscape page

Place a reference mark on your 4-hole punch

Once you have identified the correct position for hole punching 3 holes into a topic page using the steps above, you can place a reference mark on your 4-hole punch for all future pages.

Line up a correctly punched topic page with the hole cutters on your 4-hole punch. Now place a piece of electrical tape (or similar) where the left-hand edge of the laminated page sits on the hole punch as shown in the illustration below.

A piece of red electrical tape identifies where the left hand edge of a topic page should sit when punching 3 holes using a 4-hole punch.

This will act as a reference for where to position all other 3-hole pages in the future.

Your hole-punched topic pages should now sit on the right-hand side with the core vocabulary visible on the left.

Correctly positioned topic pages in an A3 book.

Further support

Ace Centre Learning offers training on Look2Talk at least twice a year. To join a mailing list to be alerted when a course becomes available please click here. NB: If you are bounced back to this eBook it means you have already joined the mailing list.

You can also check our website to see if Look2Talk courses are currently available and to see other training opportunities around communication partner skills, AAC and access methods in general by clicking here to visit Ace Centre Learning.