Plain language
[Narrator:] 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. Bad presentation can make it even harder for people to follow the structure and content of a message. All this is especially true for people with intellectual disabilities. Like everyone else, people with intellectual disabilities have the right to access good information.
Having information is important to: learn new things, take part in society, know your rights and stand up for them, decide and make your own 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 this is called Plain language. Although it sounds simple, it can be hard to create easy-to-read content. The European Union easy-to-read logo shows that a text is written in plain language.
Target groups
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 writing to match 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. Then write for that audience.
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 and other reading difficulties; people with auditory impairments who are starting to learn a spoken language; people with dementia.
Even people who do not belong to any of these target groups will benefit from easy-to-read and easy-to-understand texts.
European standards
To promote the creation of plain-language content, the European Union has published a set of guidelines on how to create easy-to-read content. The guidelines are published in 16 languages.
The 'Information for all' brochure explains the European Union standards for making information easy to read and understand.
There are three brochures which offer additional training material. The 'Training lifelong learning staff' brochure offers guidelines on how to train people to write documents that are easy to read and understand. The 'Teaching can be easy' brochure offers recommendations for lifelong learning staff to make their courses accessible. The 'Do not write for us without us' brochure offers advice on how to involve people with intellectual disabilities in the writing of texts that are easy to read and understand. These brochures are available for free. You can find the download links below the video.
Example
Let's look at an example to see how plain language influences the layout and wording of documents. As an example, we have chosen the brochure 'From institutions to community living' published by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. You can find the download links below the video.
On the left, we can see a page from the original version of the report, which is not written in plain language. On the right, we can see a page from the easy-to-read version. We can immediately see big differences in the easy-to-read version: The content is reduced to the core statements. Each statement is summarized in a simple short sentence.
To ease understanding, each statement is illustrated with an icon like graphic. This helps the orientation when searching for a specific topic. The single statements are presented in a very simple and basic layout. There are no side boxes or nested sub-layouts. The content is presented in a puristic sequential order. It reflects the key statements of the original version.
Principles of writing plain-language text
Here are some principles for writing easy-to-read texts. Write for your audience by thinking about the following questions before writing your text: 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?
This course cannot offer a complete guide on how to write plain-language texts. So we will just introduce some example rules to give you an idea of the concept.
Layout
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.
Wording
Use easy-to-understand words that people will know well. 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. If you use different words for the same thing, people can easily get confused.
Do not use metaphors, like 'it’s raining cats and dogs', 'he broke my heart' or 'I’m feeling blue'. 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.
Sentences
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. For example, say 'You should stay until the end of the meeting', rather than 'You should not leave before the end of the meeting'.
Use active language rather than passive language where possible. For example, say 'The doctor will send you a letter', not 'You will be sent a letter'.
Keep the punctuation simple. Avoid special characters, like the &, smaller or larger, paragraph or hash sign, where possible.
Ordering information
Order your information in a way that is easy to understand. Group all information about the same topic together. Never use footnotes.
Graphics
Always 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. When you use graphs or tables, 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.
Expressing data
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', as people may not know which number is for the day and which is for the month.
There are many more rules offering advice on how to lay out your document, how to select graphics and photos, and how to express data. Please consult the previously mentioned brochures for a full description.
Summary
Plain language is a language like any other. It requires training and experience to create good, easy-to-read texts. 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. You can find a link to a list of these organisations below the video.
Where to continue?
In this chapter you have learned the basic principles of plain language. Depending on your personal interests you could continue with one of the following chapters:
- Fonts, sizes and colours
- Text transcripts, captions and sign language
- Plain language
[Automated voice:] Accessibility. For more information visit: op.europa.eu/en/web/accessibility.