CAN-ASC-3.1:2025 – Plain Language
9. Definitions
Information
Table of contents
Technical committee members
- Catherine Rodgers (Chairperson), Director of Communications, People First of Canada
- Melissa Kargiannakis (Vice Chairperson), Founder and CEO, Skritswap
- Carol Wilson, Health Education Consultant, Carol A Wilson BSN RN
- Catherine Buckie, Independent Plain Language Consultant, iwritewell.ca
- Hilda Smith, Workshop Designer & Clear Language Consultant
- Karen McCall, Accessible Document Design Consultant and Trainer, Karlen Communications
- Lorne Mackenzie, Co-President, Consulting Services for Accessible Transportation Inc.
- Iva Cheung, Research coordinator, Providence Health Care; Adjunct professor, Simon Fraser University
- Julie Ruel, Researcher, Institut universitaire en déficience intellectuelle et en trouble du spectre de l’autisme
- Stacey Kowbel, Researcher, Vecova
- Rachel Mills, Senior Policy Analyst, Inclusion Canada
- Cynthia Jolly, Communications Manager, Canadian Transportation Agency
- Robin Kilroy, Manager, PCH Innovation Lab, Department of Canadian Heritage
- Youssef Megharfi, French Translator, Treasury Board Secretariat
- David Berman, Chief Accessibility Officer, David Berman Communications
- Eyra Abraham, Founder and CEO, Lisnen
- Laura Edlund, Writing, editing and communications
9.1 Definitions
The following definitions shall apply in this Standard:
Ableism - Individual and societal discrimination and exclusion in the form of attitudes, prejudices, and actions that devalue and limit the potential of people with disabilities.
Source: Adapted from the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s Policy on ableism and discrimination based on disability
Note: Ableism, like other forms of discrimination, can be conscious or unconscious, intentional or unintentional, and blatant or casual, and it can be embedded in institutions, systems, or the broader culture of a society.
Accessibility - Enabling people with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life, having access to all aspects of society on an equal and equitable basis with others.
Source: Adapted from the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, article 9 – Accessibility
Note: “All aspects of life” include employment, physical environment, transportation, information, communications (including information and communications technologies and systems), financial security, social services, and other facilities and services open or provided to the public.
Alternate formats - See Formats.
American Sign Language (ASL) - The language used by most Deaf Canadians in anglophone communities. It is a visual language made up of specific gestures involving the hands, face, and body. It has its own grammatical rules and sentence structure.
Assistive technology - Equipment, product system, hardware, software, or service that is used to increase, maintain, or improve a person’s capabilities.
Source: Adapted from CAN/ASC - EN 301 549:2024
Note: Assistive technology is an umbrella term that is broader than assistive products and adaptive technology.
Barrier - Anything that hinders a person’s full and equal participation in society. These may include architectural features, attitudes, physical conditions, technologies, communication methods, information formats, or policies and practices that create exclusion.
Sources: Adapted from Accessible Canada Act and Accessibility Standards Canada
This Standard focuses on the barriers that people might face when accessing and understanding information or communication, rather than focusing on specific disabilities. These can appear in different ways and combine to make communication and access to information difficult. This Standard addresses six broad categories of barriers that interfere with people’s ability to find, understand, and use information. See Clause 7.3.
Note: This Standard uses “addressing barriers” to mean identifying, removing, and preventing barriers.
Communication - The act of giving or exchanging information, ideas, and feelings as well as the tools and methods used to achieve that act. Where other standards and guidance refer to a “document,” “content,” or “publication,” This Standard refers to a communication, as in the definition of plain language.
Note: Examples of a communication are a poster, a contract, a notification letter, a form to fill in, a website with text and visuals, a social media post, a public service announcement, a safety manual, and many other formats.
Design - The integration of text, visuals, audio, or other elements to develop the presentation and function of a communication. An example is a graphic designer choosing an easily readable typeface for a print fact sheet about water safety, or a content creator using text, audio, and video for website about an upcoming election.
Disability - Any impairment that, in interaction with a barrier, hinders a person’s full and equal participation in society. A disability might include an impairment or functional limitation that is physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication, or sensory. Disabilities can be permanent, temporary, or episodic, and they can be apparent to other people or not.
Source: Adapted from the Accessible Canada Act
Diversity - The variety of identities found within an organization, group, or society. Diversity is expressed through factors such as culture, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, language, education, ability, family status, or social class.
Source: Adapted from the Government of Canada’s Guide on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Terminology
Evaluation - A broad set of activities to assess how well a communication meets this Standard.
Formats - The different ways that information is presented. This Standard combines modes and forms in the term “formats” to include print and electronic formats such as printed labels, pamphlets, posters, print and digital reports, websites with text and video, digital books, audio-visual communications, and communications transcribed and produced in braille. See Clause 7.1.
Alternate formats are accessible formats that organizations make available to people who need them. For example, if an organization provides online documents as one format, some people might face barriers to reading those documents and might need alternate formats such as large print, braille, audio, or another ICT product or service, such as those covered by the CAN/ASC - EN 301 549:2024.
Identity-first language - Language and expressions that emphasize a characteristic or disability first. Terms such as “blind person,” “autistic person,” “deaf person,” and “Deaf culture” are examples. See also person-first language definition and Clause 10.4.
Inclusion - The practice of using proactive measures to create an environment where people feel welcomed, respected, and valued, and to foster a sense of belonging and engagement.
Source: Government of Canada’s Guide on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Terminology
Note: This practice involves changing the environment by removing barriers so that each person has equal access to opportunities and resources and can achieve their full potential.
Information and communication technology (ICT) - Technology, equipment, or an interconnected system of equipment whose main function is to create, convert, duplicate, automatically acquire, store, analyze, evaluate, manipulate, manage, move, control, display, switch, interchange, transmit, receive, or broadcast data or information.
Source: Adapted from CAN/ASC - EN 301 549:2024
Note: Examples of ICT are web pages, telecommunications products, computers and ancillary equipment, software including mobile applications, information kiosks and transaction machines, videos, IT services, and multifunction office machines that copy, scan, and fax documents.
Intersectional - A framework that explains the cumulative way in which a person or group of people are affected by many forms of discrimination and disadvantages because of who they are in society.
Source: Adapted from Crenshaw, Kimberlé Williams. 1994. “Mapping the Margins”. In The Public Nature of Private Violence, ed. Fineman, M. and Mykitiuk, R. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar
Note: A single person can experience the effects of many systems of oppression, such as ableism, racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, and transphobia. When these systems of oppression intersect, they change and compound the barriers people face. For example, a person with a disability who also experiences discrimination because of social class might not be able to afford to buy assistive technology that would remove barriers and help them participate fully in society.
Intended audience - The people to whom you are directing your communication and the people you expect to receive your communication. The intended audience includes people with different information and accessibility needs and who face different barriers. You could have more than one intended audience for your information. You might have to develop more than one communication to provide plain language to each intended audience. As well, a single communication might have a primary audience and a secondary audience. See Clause 10.1.
- A primary audience is the main group of people to whom you are directing your communication.
- A secondary audience consists of other people who will also receive or interact with the communication.
Note: "Intended audience” is the wording used in the definition of plain language in this Standard and is broader than “readers.” The word “intended” is meant to prompt organizations to deliberately consider their audiences’ needs.
Langue des signes québécoise (LSQ) - The language used by most Deaf Canadians in francophone communities. It is a visual language made up of specific gestures involving the hands, face, and body. It has its own grammatical rules and sentence structure.
Person-first language - Language and expressions that emphasize the person first, rather than a characteristic or disability. Terms starting with “person with…” are examples of person-first language. The Accessible Canada Act uses person-first language. See also identity-first language definition and Clause 10.4.
Plain language - A communication is in plain language if its wording, structure, and design are so clear that the intended audience can easily do each of the following:
- find what they need;
- understand what they find; and
- use that information.
See Clause 6.1.
Primary audience - See Intended audience.
Secondary audience - See Intended audience.
Subject index - Focused on topics, a subject index is an arrangement of entries designed to allow users to locate information in a communication or specific communications in a collection. The entries are in alphabetical or another arrangement, and the order is different from the order of the communication or collection indexed.
Source: Adapted from ISO 999:1996
Testing - A specific kind of evaluation that involves showing a communication to members of its intended audience and getting direct feedback.