Bluesky linking
Accessible PowerPoint presentations, inclusive design resources, plain language guidelines, information patterns and naming conventions.
Here we go with another edition of the Plain English Weekly newsletter sent to you very much by me, Iain Broome.
Last week, I mentioned what seemed to be a noticeable increase in people using the social media app, Bluesky. Well, it really does seem to be taking off and I am pleased to report a growing community of content folks on there.
If you want to give it a go, you can:
And that's it. Enjoy the links below.
Iain
Let's start with an absolutely super collection of "posts, articles, guides and podcasts about inclusive design" put together by interaction designer, Benjy Stanton. I also wandered upon his excellent guide to making accessible PowerPoint presentations, which then led me on to the guide below from the Welsh government. Get your bookmarking finger ready.
How to create accessible PowerPoint presentations
On Bluesky this week, I linked to this page from the Welsh government on making accessible PowerPoint presentations and it, as I hear they say, did numbers. Lots of likes. Lots of shares.
I suspect that's because it is full of practical tips like this:
To make a presentation more accessible to people with low vision, save it in an alternate format that can be read by a screen reader. Users can then open it on a personal device or port it to a Braille reader.
But I also imagine it resonated because so many of us put a quick deck together and likely do not think about accessibility at all. But we should! Even if it's an internal presentation for colleagues, we should aim for best practice and meeting the needs of all users.
Federal plain language guidelines
I'm not sure why I haven't linked to this most marvellous resource before, but it should go straight into your bookmarks:
These are the official guidelines for the Plain Writing Act of 2010. We developed these guidelines to help you and your agency write clearly, so your users can find what they need, understand what they find, and use what they find to meet their needs.
And I should say I got a gentle nudge about this page from forms expert, Caroline Jarrett of Effortmark. Caroline also shared lots of other brill links that I am going to add to Bookmarks too. Go check out the Effortmark blog!
Information patterns and narrative structures in content
Another ace article by Lauren Pope here:
In this guide, we’ll explore 10 patterns for structuring your content to maximise understanding, engagement, and effectiveness. There’s also a matrix to help you choose the right structure based on your specific content objectives.
I've linked to a few of Lauren's pieces now, which means she has an official tag in Bookmarks. Those tags are quite a nifty way to explore the directory by the way.
How to respect international naming conventions and design inclusively
Interesting post from June Caldwell via Sparck on how countries and cultures have different naming structures. It comes with a handy list of practical tips for designing more inclusive name fields in your forms.
"Word choice is an important part of communicating clearly. While there is generally no problem with being expressive, most federal writing has no place for literary flair. People do not curl up in front of the fire with a federal regulation to have a relaxing read."
Federal plain language guidelines
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