Our job is to help communicate specific information to a wide range of people. This means we need to make sure our written content can be easily accessed and understood.
This section outlines how we do that.
Plain English
Plain English means using words that are familiar, simple, and appropriate. It does not mean our writing has to be dry or boring.
By using language like this we:
- Help people using translation software as simple language is the the easiest to translate.
- Allow people to easily read, scan, or interpret a document.
- Make sure that we cater for a wide range of reading levels.
There are a few things we do to help us do this:
- We write concisely. Screen readers can sometimes miss the intricacies of longer sentences and excessive punctuation.
- We avoid using jargon or terms that are unfamiliar to someone who doesn't work with us.
- As we are a research museum we do use technical and scientific terms. When we use these terms we provide extra information to explain what those terms mean.
- If we use an abbreviation or an acronym we make sure it has been initially explained in full.
- We use an active voice, unless curatorial or research content requires otherwise.
- Keep the use of contractions to a minimum as they can be hard to translate.
- Error messages are written simply and directly.
Language Attributes
Different languages have different pronunciation rules. When we are creating written content we need to identify what language we are writing in.
We do this by using a language attribute tag (lang="[language code]") at the start of the HTML code. "En" is the language code for English.
For the Museum, our digital content has an English language attribute within the metadata so this step is not necessary. However, if we want to use a word or phrase that is not in English we have to identify the change in language with a span class.
For example:
In 1817, Captain Louis de Freycinet was appointed by the French Government to lead a scientific expedition around the world in the corvette <span lang="fr">L'Uranie</span>.
You can find a full list of languages on the external webpage HTML Language Code Reference.
Use accessible formats
HTML should be the default format for written content.
We try to avoid creating PDFs as they are not accessible.
This is because:
- Standard mobile devices cannot support the document structure.
- People may be unaware at how large a PDF file is, so downloading it can result in excessive data usage.
- To navigate a PDF people often require assistive technology that can only be used on a desktop or laptop device.
- Some people will choose not to download a PDF. This means important information may go unread.
- Downloading large files such as PDFs can be near impossible in regional and remote places.
If there is a strong audience need for a PDF, we must make sure that content is available in another format.
We also have to clearly show that we are linking to a PDF download and state the file size by using the following format:
Download [Name of File] - PDF [File Size]