Plain language

This chapter explains the basic rules to create easy-to-read and easy-to-understand language. Accessibility website of the Publications Office of the European Union: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/accessibility TRANSCRIPT (shorten) Communication today is full of abbreviations, technical terms and words taken from foreign languages. Long and nested sentences make it difficult to understand the meaning of a text. All this is especially true for people with intellectual disabilities. Like everyone else, people with intellectual disabilities have the right to access good information, learn new things, take part in society, know the rights and stand up for them, decide and make choices. As many texts are too complicated for them to understand, people with intellectual disabilities require information that is easy to read and easy to understand. The concept behind is called Plain language. A fundamental practice of good writing is to identify your target audience before you start writing. The more you know about your users, the better you can adapt your text to their needs and expectations. Consider your audience’s reading level, the concepts and vocabulary with which they are familiar and the questions they want answered. Writing for a specific target audience is different from writing for the general public. If you want to address people with intellectual disabilities, you need to create alternative content. Creating alternative content might require additional resources, but there are other target groups that would also benefit from plain language, such as: people who do not have the applied language as a first language; people with dyslexia, reading difficulties, auditory impairments who are starting to learn a spoken language; people with dementia. To promote the creation of plain-language content, the European Union has published a set of guidelines in 16 languages on how to create easy-to-read content. The “Information for all” brochure explains the European Union standards for making information easy to read and understand. You can find the download links below the video. Before writing your text ask yourself: Who is my audience? What does my audience already know about the subject? What does my audience need to know? What questions will my audience have? What information needs to be transferred? What language can my audience understand and feel comfortable with? Use a simple, linear layout. Avoid side boxes or nested sub-layouts as these make it difficult to follow the reading order. Use images to improve the understanding of text. The images should be related to the content next to them. Never use a background image that makes it difficult to read the text. Use a font that is clear and easy to read. Choose colours with high contrast. You can find more rules on this subject in the Fonts, sizes and colours chapter. Use easy-to-understand wording. Avoid abbreviations and technical terms. Do not use words from other languages unless they are very well known. Use the same word to describe the same thing. Do not use metaphors, avoid using initialisms, like EU for European Union. Address your audience directly. Use words like “you” to do this. Repeat important information. Explain difficult words more than once. Start a new sentence on a new line. Keep your sentences short. Try to reduce the information down to the core message without losing content. Use positive sentences rather than negative ones where possible. Use active language rather than passive language where possible. Keep the punctuation simple. Avoid special characters, like the &, smaller or larger, paragraph or hash sign. Order your information in a way that is easy to understand. Group all information about the same topic together. Never use footnotes. Choose images that are clear, easy to understand and go well with the piece of text they are helping to explain. Graphs and tables can be very hard to understand. If you use them, make them simple and explain them well. Always use images that are of good quality and are right for the people you are writing for. For example, never use images that are designed for children when you are writing for adults. When using numbers, write them as digits, not as words. Never use Roman numerals. Percentages and big numbers are hard to understand. Try to describe the relationship in words like “few” and “many”. When using dates, write them out in full. For example, write “Tuesday 9 October 2008” instead of “9.10.2008”. Please note that plain language is not the same as child-friendly language, although you could create a child-friendly version of your easy-to-read texts. Always involve people with intellectual disabilities when creating your information. If you do not have this possibility, you might want to contact a local association representing the target group. Alternatively, you could contact one of the organisations specialized in the creation of easy-to-read texts.