Language can be complicated and complex but is something that we cannot escape.  This month we are focusing on Language and how to make the language of our content more accessible for all of our users who come to our website!

Language Attribute

Language is important for any of our digital content and it is important for us to properly markup our HTML with the language attribute in our HTML tag. This lang attribute determines the language of a document or a specific section of content on a page.  The lang attribute can be applied to almost any tag as such:

<html lang="en">

The language attribute is important because it allows users to know what language our content is in and will allow the user to not be confused by assistive technology mispronouncing words that have the wrong language attribute attached to it.

Complex Language

Now sometimes we unintentionally or intentionally have very complex language structures. When we use complex language structures we can really be creating barriers to users by limiting access to information because they are not able to process or understand the information.

Sometimes when we have complex language structures we can unintentionally suppress engagement and  decrease opportunities for individuals. Have complex language can also hinder the health and safety if people do not understand the information that we are sharing with them. So how can we get our information out there but yet in a way that is easily understood and processed by our audience?

Who Benefits From Readability and Simple Language

Many of us have probably encountered text that was really hard to read or was pretty hard to understand. We will talk about creating visual readability in a little bit but I wanted to talk briefly about readability from a comprehension standpoint.

Many of you are aware that the University has guidelines on tones, voice, etc. for us to try and capture when we are creating content. This is great but there are also some additional things we need to consider when we are creating content for the university.

The first thing is  education level. Some of our information is going to be consumed by our students and some of it is going to be consumed by people who just want to learn more. When we are creating content for courses, our website, or anything we want to try and keep our reading level at about a 9th grade level.  There are many scales to help determine what your contents reading level is and the SiteImprove tool can help you determine what your contents reading level is.

Having a 9th grade reading level benefits users who:

• English is not their native language
• Individuals with Cognitive Disabilities
• Individuals with brain injury/trauma (concussions, etc.)
• Individuals who take various kinds of medications
• Individuals who are stressed

Tips for Improving Contents Language

By having plain and not complex language on our site it will help us make our content clear and consistent which will help to lessen the confusion that we experience. This will also help our users be able to understand our content faster. Sometimes there is language that we have to use that could be confusing or could have multiple means such as Jargon and abbreviations.  In those cases make sure to define what those terms are so that it is easily understood by the reader. 

Some tips for plain language:

• Use active voice
• Use familiar language
• Use language attributes when switching languages