Accessibility and universal design have arrived in written language. People who can read and write well sometimes forget that not everyone else has that capability. But writing a document or webpage in plain language takes a lot of thought. Doing plain language is a process. This point is well made in a blog article.
Kelsie Acton writes about her plain language experiences in a blog post. As with any new idea, we grow with practice. That’s also one of the tenets of universal design: do the best you can with what you have at the time. Then do it better next time – it’s a process of continuous improvement. That’s exactly in the spirit of universal design.
Acton’s article is a great example in itself. It isn’t plain language as such, but it is very easy to read. She explains the process of thinking about plain language and the difficulties it poses sometimes. For example, words can feel flat – it’s all about facts and less about feeling.
Having more than one version of a document is important. Writing in a way to make people think or to express values are difficult to do in plain language. Acton gives an example of this where she takes an emotive paragraph and turns it into plain language.
Acton says that plain language uses:
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- The most common vocabulary possible so that readers aren’t stopped by unfamiliar words
- Active voice, so it is clear who is doing what
- Short sentences
- Headings, lists, bullet points, and white space to make information clearer
- Definitions to introduce readers to complicated vocabulary
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It makes you think
There is no doubt that writing complex ideas in a straightforward way takes time and effort. Acton says the process makes her think about her own understanding of a topic. Writing in an active voice makes her think about who is doing what. It also makes her think about her relationship to the topic.
So, doing plain language is more than a case of clever wordsmithing. It’s a learning process as well. Kelsie Action’s short article is on the Critical Design Lab website and worth a read. Note the design of the webpage for easy access and reading.
Plain language communication
It’s assumed that by the time students leave school they can read and write. However, even with remedial work, some students will leave school without a working level of these skills. More than 40% of Australians do not have the literacy skills for everyday living. Included in this group are people with English as a second language. This is why plain language communication is important – and good for everyone. It is a universal design approach to communication.
Governments now are producing Easy Read documents as adjuncts to their main documents. But other fields of endeavour are not catching up. In particular, academic writing has always been exclusive to those who can read at this level. The bottom line is, if you want your document and information read by as many people as possible, write in plain language. Alternatively, provide a plain language summary. But this is another skillset.
We are seeing more accessible formats for people who are blind/low vision and Deaf/hard of hearing. So, we need plain language and Easy Read too.
Cathy Basterfield presented a paper on this topic at UD2021, and also see a previous post on plain language.