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Saying the reason is “accessibility” suggests that it only helps people with poor literacy. There are two things to note: 1. Most people writing content will a

Saying the reason is “accessibility” suggests that it only helps people with poor literacy. There are two things to note: 1. Most people writing content will assume that their readers are like themselves or their social circle and will therefore have good literacy skills. However the actual proportion of people with poor (or even just not high) literacy skills is much higher than you might estimate from your social circle. 2. Improving clarity for people with poor literacy will also improve readability for people with good literacy.

learnstats2 6y ago
If you read that "accessibility" is only helpful to specific groups, then you haven't understood accessibility. (I'm not sure if I'm agreeing with you here)
nicbou 6y ago
You must also consider people who are not native speakers. I'm sometimes appalled by the complexity of the letters I get in Germany, especially when they are related to immigration.
- rimliu 6y ago
  So, the solution is to dumb everything down to the least common denominator?
  - robin_reala 6y ago
    You say ’lowest common denominator’ like it’s a bad thing. It’s not a bad thing to try to support all your users.
  - nicbou 6y ago
    It's not about dumbing things down, since you convey the same information and solve the same problems, just more efficiently. It's about being understood by the users you are meant to serve.
  - sah2ed 6y ago
    > So, the solution is to dumb everything down to the least common denominator? Essentially, yes. Using words most people are familiar with will afford a lot of people nearly instantaneous cognition [0] of the information you are trying to convey with your writing. This applies to both ends of the reading spectrum: highly educated people who do a lot of reading than most; and poorly educated people who probably had to drop out of school to make ends meet. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subitizing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subitizing
searchableguy 6y ago
> Government experts often say that because they’re writing technical or complex content for a specialist audience, they do not need to use plain English. This is wrong. > Research shows that higher literacy people prefer plain English because it allows them to understand the information as quickly as possible. > For example, research into use of specialist legal language in legal documents found: > 80% of people preferred sentences written in clear English - and the more complex the issue, the greater that preference (for example, 97% preferred ‘among other things’ over the Latin ‘inter alia’) > the more educated the person and the more specialist their knowledge, the greater their preference for plain English > People understand complex specialist language, but do not want to read it if there’s an alternative. This is because people with the highest literacy levels and the greatest expertise tend to have the most to read. They do not have time to pore through reams of dry, complicated prose. someone linked this above: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/content-design/writing-for-gov-uk https://www.gov.uk/guidance/content-design/writing-for-gov-u...
- pbronez 6y ago
  This makes total sense to me. Simple language makes room for complex ideas.
  - sah2ed 6y ago
    > This makes total sense to me. Simple language makes room for complex ideas. My takeaway is slightly different: simple words (familiar) are easier to digest than big words (unfamiliar) because familiar words will be parsed very quickly for most people than unfamiliar words. I prefer to use the categorization of “familiar” vs “unfamiliar” because the categorization of a word as “big” or “simple” depends largely on the reading ability of the person making the assessment.

learnstats2 6y ago

If you read that "accessibility" is only helpful to specific groups, then you haven't understood accessibility. (I'm not sure if I'm agreeing with you here)

nicbou 6y ago

You must also consider people who are not native speakers. I'm sometimes appalled by the complexity of the letters I get in Germany, especially when they are related to immigration.

rimliu 6y ago
So, the solution is to dumb everything down to the least common denominator?
- robin_reala 6y ago
  You say ’lowest common denominator’ like it’s a bad thing. It’s not a bad thing to try to support all your users.
- nicbou 6y ago
  It's not about dumbing things down, since you convey the same information and solve the same problems, just more efficiently. It's about being understood by the users you are meant to serve.
- sah2ed 6y ago
  > So, the solution is to dumb everything down to the least common denominator? Essentially, yes. Using words most people are familiar with will afford a lot of people nearly instantaneous cognition [0] of the information you are trying to convey with your writing. This applies to both ends of the reading spectrum: highly educated people who do a lot of reading than most; and poorly educated people who probably had to drop out of school to make ends meet. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subitizing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subitizing

searchableguy 6y ago

> Government experts often say that because they’re writing technical or complex content for a specialist audience, they do not need to use plain English. This is wrong. > Research shows that higher literacy people prefer plain English because it allows them to understand the information as quickly as possible. > For example, research into use of specialist legal language in legal documents found: > 80% of people preferred sentences written in clear English - and the more complex the issue, the greater that preference (for example, 97% preferred ‘among other things’ over the Latin ‘inter alia’) > the more educated the person and the more specialist their knowledge, the greater their preference for plain English > People understand complex specialist language, but do not want to read it if there’s an alternative. This is because people with the highest literacy levels and the greatest expertise tend to have the most to read. They do not have time to pore through reams of dry, complicated prose. someone linked this above: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/content-design/writing-for-gov-uk https://www.gov.uk/guidance/content-design/writing-for-gov-u...

pbronez 6y ago
This makes total sense to me. Simple language makes room for complex ideas.
- sah2ed 6y ago
  > This makes total sense to me. Simple language makes room for complex ideas. My takeaway is slightly different: simple words (familiar) are easier to digest than big words (unfamiliar) because familiar words will be parsed very quickly for most people than unfamiliar words. I prefer to use the categorization of “familiar” vs “unfamiliar” because the categorization of a word as “big” or “simple” depends largely on the reading ability of the person making the assessment.