CAN-ASC 3.1 Plain Language: Public review draft – 4. Part 1: General considerations

4.1.1 Create plain language for the intended audience

The organization shall create communication that is clear, timely, accurate, and accessible in plain language for anyone who might need it.

4.1.2 Meet information needs

The organization shall:

1. meet the information needs of the audience;
2. consult with members of the audience to identify their barriers to finding, understanding, and using communications, and
3. identify the primary audience of the communication.

Notes:

1. The organization might achieve this by consulting existing studies, research data, or new data to identify the intended audience's comfort and skills with types and levels of literacy relevant to the communication.
2. People in your audience have different communication skills and you might need to adjust the choice of words in your content or the format of your communication to meet their needs.

4.1.3 Identify audiences

1. The organization shall identify the audiences:
   1. a primary audience: the main people who need to find, understand, and use the communication;
   2. one or more secondary audiences, affected or concerned, such as intermediaries who deliver the message to the primary audience or other people who might be affected by the communication.
2. The organization shall determine whether more than one format of communication is required to deliver the message to intended audiences.

Notes:

1. Communications usually have a primary audience and one or more secondary audiences made up of people with different needs, knowledge levels, and abilities, as well as members of different social, economic, geographic, or ethnic groups. The organization's communication should meet the information needs of the different people it is trying to reach. Secondary audiences might be intermediaries involved in sending the communication to the primary audience.
2. Primary and secondary audiences might have conflicting interests. Where this conflict cannot be reconciled, consider creating separate communications.

4.1.3.1 Update audience information

The organization shall regularly update the information to learn about audiences, their requirements, and evolving technologies to revise communications.

Note: Regularly reassess the understanding of the audiences as they might change. Consider who else might benefit from the information.

4.1.3.2 Maintain an audience focus

The organization shall create a communication for the primary audience, but consider how a secondary audience might:

1. interact with the communication, or
2. have different concerns that require a separate communication, and
3. need to request individualization.

4.1.3.3 Discover the audience diversity

The organization shall identify the geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioural features of the intended audience using reliable sources and consultations.

4.1.3.4 Use plain language in all languages

The organization shall deliver any information needed by the intended audience in plain language and, if needed, shall:

1. deliver information in languages other than the official and priority languages of Canada;
2. make communication available in other languages, and
3. identify in a communication the languages that are available.

Notes:

1. Indicate where the communication is indexed or available.
2. Canada's Official Languages Act, s. 23 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms , and other policies or guidance specific to the organization might govern the languages in which the communications are offered.
3. Provide information in the languages the intended audience best understands.
4. Learn which languages the intended audience best understands by consulting representative members of the intended audience and using reliable sources, like Statistics Canada census data.

4.1.4 Engage with the intended audience

Notes: Communicating in plain language involves considering the variety of ways people might engage with the material, format, and design of the communication or how people are not able to engage with it because of barriers.

Researching, consulting with, and engaging with intended audiences are aids in the process of evaluating content and communications in the development stage, before publication, and after publication.

4.1.4.1 Learn about the intended audience

The organization should consult representative members of the intended audience to:

1. identify their abilities, their preferences, their literacy levels, and their level of comfort and skills with written, spoken, and signed languages, or numeracy;
2. learn the following features of the audience:
   1. how much background information they need included in the communication, and
   2. if different content or material is needed for audience members with different levels of knowledge.

4.1.5 Consult the audience

1. The organization should consult representative members of the intended audience to learn:
   1. the situation and physical or digital environment in which the audience will receive the communication, and
   2. the likely way the audience will feel or respond when they use the information.
      Note: The context in which the members of the audience interact with a communication influences their stress levels and attention, which affects how well they receive and process information.
2. The organization should consult representative members of the intended audience while developing a communication to
   1. confirm they can find, understand, and use the communication, and
   2. determine the structure, wording, and design.
      Note: The representatives of the audience might engage in participation in planning and creating the communication or through surveys, questionnaires, or focus groups.
3. If it is not possible or feasible to consult representative members of the intended audience, or if the information is confidential, the organization shall use methods and information from consultations on other communications.