Digital pioneers

Good day to you and welcome to edition 32, as it happens, of the Plain English Club newsletter. Reminder that it's me, Iain Broome, doing the sending.

Thanks to everyone who shared the last couple of emails with pals and on the socials. Remember, each edition of the newsletter is published on the Plain English Club website. There are also now more than 200 bookmarks tagged up and searchable on the Bookmarks page. Imagine!

Enjoy the links below...

Iain

Challenging ageism: Inclusive writing for the 50+ audience

Apart from the personal devastation of being just a mere half-decade away from joining this particular user group, there is lots of good stuff in this piece by Bryan Kelly on writing for people over 50:

Designing for older adults isn’t about simplifying everything or creating a “senior version” of your digital experience. It’s about designing with respect, complexity, and care — just like you would for any other audience.

That's the gist of it, but Kelly also includes a range of research-backed personas to help you think about how different people might approach your content. Basically, it's 2025 and we are quite some way past the notion of the 'silver surfer'.

How to use braille for accessible information

I learnt a lot from this guidance on braille by the Sensory Trusts:

Just because many braille readers would ordinarily visit a destination with another person does not mean that the other person shares their interest in the contents of an interpretation sign or a guidebook. Providing braille materials pre-visit and during a visit enables a visually impaired visitor to gather information at their own pace, without relying on a sighted person to read everything for them.

Slightly related, The Wildlife Trusts recently published a new guide to help organisations develop accessible outdoor spaces. It was developed following research with organisations across the UK and includes some simple, practical advice to help get the basics in place.

How do I know all this? Well, friends, it was I who wrote it (working alongside the ace Sarah Clarke).

End with one thing per page

This is a link to the latest edition of Adam Silver's very good newsletter. It's a riff on the always-sound advice to start with one thing per page when designing a form. Go read it. Sensible stuff.

NHS Document Readability Tool

Here's a useful free readability tool:

Copy and paste text that you have written into the tool and make edits. Or start writing something new directly in the tool. Use the options on the right hand side to find out the reading age of your text. Also find out what might make your writing hard to read. Edit your text and see the reading age change. Once you’ve finished, copy and paste your text from the tool into a word document, email etc.

Sounds good, so long as you also take into account the dangers of using reading age as a measure for adults.

The Sliding Scale of Giving a F***

And now for something a little different with a touch of fruity language.

One of my lovely colleagues shared this blog post by Cap Watkins with me earlier this year and I have thought about it a lot since. Essentially, if you are having a difficult design or content conversation, how much does the issue mean to you on a scale of 1–10?

There have been a few times recently when I could tell someone felt far more strongly about a decision than I did. So, I acquiesced, with the hope that the next time I'm a ten-out-of-ten on a topic with that person involved, they'll recognize that and hear me out. If you can let go of the things that don't matter so much to you directly, you can build currency with others and earn their trust when you do wind up pushing back.

I have found this an incredibly useful mental trick. When you are in the fog of deadlines and challenging work, it is easy to feel like every decision matters and all arguments are worth fighting for. But that's not how true collaboration works.

To work effectively as a team when things get tough and tense, there has to be a bit of give and take. You can't go full steam ahead into every single conversation. It's unlikely that your way will be the right way every time.

So yeah – these are good questions to ask. Is this decision – this argument – really that important to me? Do I feel so strongly about it? Or can I let this one go and save my persistence for a problem that's more of an 8, 9 or 10 out of 10?

"When we hear “older adults,” we often imagine people in their 70s or 80s who struggle with technology. However, the real 50+ audience includes Gen Xers who built the web, older Millennials nearing age 50, and Boomers who continue to shape culture and the workforce. They’re not digital immigrants. They’re digital pioneers."
Bryan Kelly

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