PRIORITY INTERNET ISSUES
Of those with less formal education (% choosing)
Respect Being more respectful
Security Ensuring privacy
Usefulness Providing more useful services
Credibility Providing more specific information
Reliability Providing more reliable services

Each element was evaluated separately.
Communication Canada, Listening to Canadians: Communications Survey, Winter 2001.

Internet Sites

Internet sites are sources of general public information with specific characteristics due to the fact that they are not consulted in a linear manner, like a printed document that is read from start to finish. The linear approach must yield to the fragmentation of information, the sheet of paper to a monitor, the static nature to dynamism and interaction.

A document designed for the Internet can thus be distinguished by certain characteristics:

• suitability for on-screen consultation (which limits the length of pages to be written);
• multimedia content (text and images – static or dynamic – as well as sound and video);
• ability to be read in an optional and non-linear way (requiring that each part of the site be independent, while maintaining a link with the other parts).

These distinctive characteristics require the communicator to modify the traditional practices of formulating, organizing and presenting information in order to adapt more specifically to individuals with low literacy skills.

Tab 2, Successful Written Communication, offers tips for plain language that can be applied to written media and can also be used for Internet sites.