Text and Plain Language
Textual content comes in many forms, including
- semantically in paragraphs, headings, lists and tables;
- visually in images, infographics and fliers and
- programmatically in alternative text, closed captions and transcriptions.
According to the Nielson Norman Group, your audience will read about 20% of the text on an average page. Improve the readability of your content by looking at word choice, grammar, capitalization, punctuation, spelling, formatting, and styling.
Improving readability reduces phone calls and questions. Your audience reads and comprehends more of the information on your page.
Formatting versus Styling
While it is not always apparent within the software you are using, you should always lean towards formatting options over styling options to create semantically correct text content:
Plain Language
Plain language is beneficial for people with cognitive disabilities as well as people who are unfamiliar with the primary language of an audience. For example, English is the primary language or default language defined on all the web pages of this website. However, Spanish should be accommodated to address our community, per TAC 206.71, Translation.
One easy way to accommodate the translation of English to Spanish or any other language is to use plain language in our writing. The meaning of words or phrases are less likely to be lost. This includes avoiding colloquialisms or idioms that may look unusual when translated into another language.