Today, I want to continue to discuss various ways to make research data more accessible. While there are specific accessibility recommendations for specific types of data files, such as recommendations for accessible and reusable spreadsheets, we’re going to focus on something more general today: plain language.
Plain language is a clear way of writing that makes your content easier to understand. Plain language doesn’t necessarily apply to research data (as you shouldn’t alter data), but is a good strategy for documentation, where you have direct control over what you write. The idea is that if you write your documentation more clearly, people will better understand your data and can more easily reuse it. Using plain language is also an accessibility issue, as it helps people with various cognitive disabilities better understand written content.
So what does plain language look like? Plain language recommends simplification wherever possible. Some common recommendations for plain language include:
- Write the most important information first;
- Keep sentences short and direct;
- Keep paragraphs short;
- Break content into sections and use headings;
- Avoid jargon;
- Define acronyms and abbreviations;
- Use bullet pointed lists, where possible.
You can adjust your writing to your audience and use research-specific terms, but remember that some researchers in your field may not be native English speakers. So plain language for research documentation should balance using clear and direct words against field-specific terminology.
Plain language also involves writing at a lower reading level, typically no higher than a lower secondary education level (WCAG 2.2, Criterion 3.1.5). Even with the ability to adjust your writing to your audience, assuming a lower reading level will make your writing more accessible to everyone, even those without disabilities.
Let’s look at an example of plain language. Let’s start with the sentence: “based on the state of the local flora and where we are in the growing season, I recommend ceasing the collection of samples.” A plain language version of that sentence is: “do not pick the flowers.” The second sentence is much clearer and more direct and means roughly the same thing.
Writing in plain language is an art and takes practice. But I encourage you to think about plain language the next time you create research documentation so as to make your documentation (and thus your research data) as accessible as possible.
