- Before setting
standards it is important to have a good understanding of what staff know about
or think about clear language.
- Anyone in our
Department is able to produce resources. Our staff are content experts, but
they are not all good writers.
- In our
Department, at first, the focus was on keeping the grade level down, which lead
to people accusing HPC of ‘dumbing down’ resources and being the
‘big word police’. Very few staff knew about clear language
principles and even fewer were using them.
- In Ontario,
there is no requirement to use clear language.
- Clear language
was promoted to our management as one of the strategies which could help to
ensure that our programs are accessible to everyone (highly supported).
- At first, staff
buy-in was limited and achieved one person at a time.
- It is important
to develop a strong rationale for using clear language based on the needs of
your audiences.
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