Plain Language Writing — An Essential Part Of Accessibility

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Editors’ Pick|Oct 22, 2020,03:52pm EDT|

Plain Language Writing — An Essential Part Of Accessibility

Andrew Pulrang
Contributor
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Exploring disability practices, policy, politics, and culture.

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How do you make writing accessible?

We know how to replace steps with ramps. We know how to widen doorways and make restrooms larger for wheelchair users. We can accommodate Deaf people with Sign Language and captions on videos. Blind people can use large print, Braille, or audiobooks. But how do we make information, instructions, and ideas more cognitively accessible, particularly for people with intellectual, developmental, and learning disabilities?

An important way to provide greater cognitive accessibility is to use “Plain Language” writing. Here is an example of an original text, followed by a Plain Language version:

Original:

“Staying alive is a lot of work for a disabled person in an ableist society, and that work has been a big part of my forty-six years on this planet. I grew up seeing very few images that looked like me in books, film, or television. In that absence, how does one realize that something is even missing?

“Last year there was a photograph that [...]