THE INTERSECTION BETWEEN ACCESSIBILITY AND PLAIN LANGUAGE

SUZI SHAPIRO, PHDINDIANA UNIVERSITY EAST

2012 UXPA

JUNE 4-8 2012

Accessibility Plain Language

WHAT I DO

I USED TO WRITE FOR MYSELF!

•What I would want to know•The way I was taught•To demonstrate my skills

• organized• thoughtful• grammatically correct • no spelling errors.

MY STUDENTS OFTENFAILED TO UNDERSTAND (OR REMEMBER) WHAT I HAD WRITTEN

I BECAME MORE AWARE THAT

People do not READ the way we think that they do.

They scan documents:

Jump around

Look for important or relevant words

They QUIT if bored or confused

They often ignore a large percentage of the information later in the document

IF THEY READ IT AT ALL!

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

Can’t I just tell them it is

required?

BEHIND EVERY BEHAVIOR

IS A REASON

PEOPLE DON’T READ BECAUSE THEY …

Have “better” things to do

Have different perspectives

Are confused by complex structure

Are unfamiliar with jargon ridden language.

Are affected by limited :

• vision • mobility • ability to pay attention

U.S. REHABILITATION ACT OF 1973

Prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability.

SECTION 504

"No otherwise qualified [sic] individual with a disability in the United States shall, solely by reason of his/her [sic] disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."

NOT A BIG DEAL….

How many people are therewho have a disability that would limit their ability to read a document?

A “NOT QUITE REPRESENTIVE” SAMPLE

NATIONAL STATISTICS (1999)

Number of postsecondary undergraduate students in the United States who report having a disability

6% of the student body

SURVEY DATA

Six reporting schools,

Approximately 2.5% of students

5,976 of the 240,122 students

WHAT KINDS OF DISABILITIES DO STUDENTS REPORT?

DISABILITIES REPORTED BY STUDENT

Type of Disability %

Learning disabilities 45.7%

Mobility or orthopedic impairments 13.9%

Health impairments 11.6%

Mental illness or emotional disturbance 7.8%

Hearing impairments 5.6%

Blindness and visual impairments 4.4%

Speech or language impairments 0.9%

Other impairments 9.1%

DISABILITIES NOT REPORTED BY STUDENTS?

Common disabilities:

Too tired

Too busy

Too stressed

To think clearly & attend to tasks.

HOW CAN I BE SURE….

I am communicating effectively?

I am giving all students an equal opportunity to learn?

I am not unintentionally creating barriers?

THE SOLUTION

Research on creating information that is accessible and understandable for the widest possible variety of people.

UNIVERSAL DESIGN

HOW DO WE CREATE DOCUMENTS THAT COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY?

Simple is good!

Plain Language

PLAIN LANGUAGE GOALS

Help people to:

• Find what they need

• Understand what they find

• Use what they find to meet their needs.

HOW TO GET THERE!

• Logical organization with the reader in mind

• "You" and other pronouns

• Active voice

• Short sentences

• Common, everyday words

• Easy-to-read design features

MY RECOMMENDATIONFOR A PROCESS

STEP 1Determine your objectives

or outcomes

STEP 2Ask yourself

•“What are the questions someone should ask?”

Then, at each point

•“What is needed to continue?”

STEP 3Put information in an orderthat will

• Answer frequently asked questions FIRST

• Build information

SAMPLE: ASSIGNMENT ORDER

What is the name of the assignment?

When is the assignment due?

What am I supposed to learnfrom the assignment?

What resources do I need to complete the assignment?

What should I do first? Second? . . .

How do I know that the assignment is complete?

STEP 4Continue editing the document to eliminate

Cross out contentthat is not needed.essential for completion of the task.

STEP 5IF APPROPRIATE…

Number the partsin the order that they should be completed.

STEP 6Format for

• Accessibility

• Scanning

WHY ?Facilitates online reading and use of screen reading software

Helps people to find information quickly

Organization assists people with attention problems

HOW?• Expectancy

• Structure

• Redundancy

• Visibility

EXPECTANCY:

What information does the readerexpect to find in the document?

– don’t guess, ASK!

• Where do they expect to find it?

• What do they expect it to be called?

STRUCTURE:

Use headings and subheadings

Use Document STYLES

Heading levels

(Not format changes)

STRUCTURE:

Replace paragraphs with bulleted lists

Numbered lists for items

• that must all be completed or • that must be done in sequence.

REDUNDANCY:

Put important information

in several places

REDUNDANCY:

Use multiple types of coding

– style, color, etc.

MULTIPLE CODING

WITHOUT HATCHING WITH HATCHING

MULTIPLE CODING

REDUNDANCY:

Use images

when applicable

VISIBILITY:

CONTRAST

Font

Color

Position

LARGE FONT SIZE

12 Point minimum for print and online viewing

14 point minimum for low vision, children, or older people (Over 40)

SIMPLE FONT STYLE

San Serif

Ariel

Verdana

Serif

Times New Roman

Century Schoolbook

AVOID SPECIAL EFFECTS

AVOID

Combinations of

RED and GREEN

Or

BLUE and YELLOW

COLOR BLINDNESS

Watch out ! for combinations that are hard to discriminate for people with color blindnessOr anyone else….

THE GOAL?

Documents that can and will be read and understood by more people.

Accessibility Plain Language

CONTACT ME

Suzi Shapiro

suzi@suzishapiro.com

@afullmind