Plain Language at Work: Creating Content That Is Accessible for Everyone (Part 2 of 5: Audience and Organization)
Amy Reff, MA, ADS
Senior Accessibility Editor: Accessible Document Specialist | Copy Editor | Publication Designer
Writing content can be challenging. Writing content that is clear to a general audience can be even more challenging. In this five-part series, learn about some guidelines for creating content that is clear and accessible to everyone.
First, see Part 1 to learn what plain language is. In Parts 2–5, learn about plain language using the following principles adapted from the U.S. federal plain language guidelines available at plainlanguage.gov.
How do we use plain language?
The first rule of accessibility is to plan from the start.
Making content accessible cannot be an afterthought. Many problems can come up—inconveniently, inefficiently, unproductively, and possibly detrimentally to the work at hand if handled late in the process.
If you have to rewrite or rethink content, you may also need to re-budget for extra staff time and approval stages. These issues could hurt client relationships and even result in employee resignation due to low morale among team members.
Although editors, proofreaders, and designers can advise at late stages, a high-quality product can be delivered—on time!—if you think about accessible language from the start.
So let’s look at the first two accessibility principles mentioned earlier, beginning with audience.
Audience
If you work on content often, you probably already know that you need to consider your audience and tailor your content to them. You need to think about how formal you want to be, how familiar your audience is with the content, and what level of subject matter knowledge or training they have.
Your language may need to be more general, using an informal voice. Or it may need to be more technical, using a formal voice.
Your audience may include children, adults, and seniors; higher education students and faculty; experts and policymakers; marginalized communities; non-native speakers; people with disabilities (physical, emotional, cognitive); and so on, or even just internal teams at your company.
Knowing your audience will support your word choice and consider how you will use jargon and abbreviations, if at all.
Informal voice
If you will be using an informal voice, you may be using “you” or “we” pronouns to engage your readers and make the content more interactive. If this is the case, use these pronouns consistently.
For example, the following statement mixes the “you” and “we” pronouns:
You should promote your services with a positive message and verified testimonials. That’s when we build a solid reputation in the industry.
When you read this statement, you may be confused about whether it is directed to you, the reader, or to all readers as a group.
If this statement was provided in a professional learning session, you could be left wondering whether the writer is asking readers to think individually (“you/your") or to think along with the other participants (“we”).
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The mix of pronouns can be more subtle than this example or spread across a list or long paragraph. A good guideline is to choose "you" or "we" and stick to it as much as possible.
Organization
A well-organized document with a clear structure is accessible to everyone because it helps readers navigate the text. Specifically, headings and lists help break up text and help readers scan a document for relevant information. When you can read content in chunks, you are less overwhelmed.
Writers can also use headings and lists to present meaning more clearly and put the focus on the essential points. Learn more about splitting content into chunks in Part 5: Design.
A note on screen readers:
Document structure is particularly important when it comes to screen readers, which are a type of assistive technology for users with disabilities. Screen readers automatically read aloud text on the screen.
Screen readers are often used by people with low or no vision as well as people with dyslexia or other cognitive disabilities that affect reading capability. Non-native speakers may use them as well.
Some popular screen readers include NVDA (free), JAWS (paid), and Apple Voiceover (free). Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat Reader also have built-in read-aloud functions.
Heading levels: Minimize them and don't skip any
When creating headings, consider the number of heading levels carefully. If you have too many levels, readers may lose track of the topic you are trying to discuss. LinkedIn articles only have three heading levels. For example:
An ideal maximum is three levels. However, sometimes more levels are needed depending on the content. If that's the case, just be consistent and don't skip levels—don't place a heading level 4 after a heading level 2 simply because you like the way heading level 4 looks. The hierarchy is there for a reason!
Fonts: Use them consistently across and within heading levels
Use the same font (for example, Calibri, Arial, or Times New Roman) for all heading levels and the same style of font (italic, bold, all caps) within heading levels (for example, heading level 2 is always Arial 14 point bold). Consistent font and font styles help sighted readers as well as readers with cognitive disabilities navigate the text more easily.
You can use heading styles that can be automatically applied with the click of a button. To learn more about heading styles, see the Microsoft Office tutorial “Apply styles.”
Multilevel lists: Avoid them or minimize the levels
Multilevel lists, or lists that have more than one level of bulleted or numbered items (also known as nested lists), can be difficult to track just like numerous heading levels can be.
In Part 3 of this plain language series, you'll learn about the principle of word choice as adapted from the guidelines of plainlanguage.gov. You can also read Part 1, which explains what plain language is; Part 4 to learn about clarity in plain language; and Part 5 to learn about designing with plain language in mind.
I like that you touched upon minimizing heading levels, as this is a subject I recently researched in composing a checklist for an inordinate amount of information, and your answer rang true. As a fan of optimization, I also liked that you linked to part 1 at the end of part 2. Informative. Good job!