The Plain Language Association InterNational (PLAIN) is an international association that promotes clear communication in all languages.

The PLAIN2023 conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina marked our 30th anniversary.

This is a historic milestone that we want to celebrate with all our members and supporters.

As part of a series of celebratory events, we have created a brief account of our history and activities of 30 years in 30 pages. We revealed this booklet to our members during the 2023 Annual General Meeting, and now we reveal it to the plain language community! We share the booklet with you in celebration and gratitude.

We thank all the people who have made these first 30 years a reality, including members, directors, volunteers, conference speakers and attendees, journal authors, staff and advocates.

We extend our gratitude to PLAIN’s founders and unwavering supporters Cheryl Stephens and Kate Harrison Whiteside.

Let’s celebrate together!

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We are delighted to announce that PLAIN’s 2023 conference will be in Argentina on 27 – 29 September in collaboration with the Observatorio de Lenguaje Claro (OBS) of the Law School At the National University at Buenos Aires.

The conference builds on the OBS’ success in consolidating plain language knowledge from various fields into effective communication policies.

Margrethe Kvarenes, our outgoing President, and OBS Director Judge Lorena Tula del Moral invite you to attend PLAIN 2023!

Two of our Board Members are Argentine Spanish speakers, Romina Marazzato Sparano and Natalia Torro, and will be happy to assist PLAIN members and conference attendees with questions in Spanish! You can reach them at romina at sign languagecompass dot com y nataliatorro at sign gmail dot com.

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Nos complace anunciar que el congreso PLAIN 2023 se celebrará en Argentina del 27 al 29 de septiembre en colaboración con el Observatorio de Lenguaje Claro (OBS) de la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires.

El congreso se apoya  en el trabajo del OBS que sintetiza con éxito conocimientos sobre el lenguaje claro provenientes de diversos ámbitos pra la creación de políticas de comunicación eficaces.

Margrethe Kvarenes, ex-presidente de PLAIN, y la directora del OBS, la jueza Lorena Tula del Moral, los invitan a asistir a PLAIN 2023.

Dos de nuestras Directoras son hispanohablantes argentinas, Romina Marazzato Sparano y Natalia Torro, y estarán encantadas de ayudar a los miembros de PLAIN y a los asistentes al congreso con preguntas relacionadas al mismo. Pueden escribirles a romina arroba languagecompass punto com y nataliatorro arroba gmail punto com.

Call for Papers!

Clarity International, one of our fellow Plain Language organizations, dedicated to legal language, will hold its conference in Japan and has opened a call for papers. Check out the details below.

Theme

Achieving understanding and cooperation through communicating with clarity and fairness – Towards a sustainable society

Diversity and inclusion are shared values in the global society. Plain language plays an important role in creating a global society that is diverse, inclusive and accepting of different values.
It does that by enabling smooth communication without misunderstandings, across the whole of society, irrespective of nationality, sex, age, religion and culture.
The goal of the 2022 Clarity International Conference is to promote effective communication through plain language that is accessible to all.

Format

The conference will be held in person but may be changed to online depending on the status of immigration restrictions in Japan as of June 20, 2022.

To realize a sustainable society and promote DX, the conference will be paperless as far as possible.

English will be the primary language for the conference. There will be no interpreters, but a web conferencing system with a simultaneous interpretation function will be available. Do not miss a plain language demonstration experiment that is highly compatible with digitalization.

Several sessions will show how plain language is highly consistent with DX and AI.

Call for Papers in Four areas

Law | Business | Society | Applications and Technologies

Law

Plain legal language helping build a diverse, inclusive global community. Your submission could focus on:

1. Plain language best practice examples and solutions in developed countries where governments are promoting plain language for public-facing communication.
2. The use of plain language in the legal system.
3. Plain language legislation around the globe.
4. Issues in translating Japanese laws.
5. Plain contract language.
6. Online terms & conditions, and personal information disclosures.
7. Multilingual considerations for plain language legal documents.
8. Plain language in commercial law, consumer-protection law or other areas of law.
9. Design thinking in legal communications.
10. Crisis & emergency notifications to foreigners in your country.

Business

Plain language essential for Environment, Society and Governance (ESG) initiatives. Your submission could focus on:

1. Doing business in plain language.
2. Financial and non-financial transparency.
3. Addressing the need for clear, concise communication.
4. Plain language for corporate governance & investor relations.
5. Digital transformation in the sphere of plain language.
6. Insurance industry initiatives.
7. Initiatives for plain language at government agencies and corporations.
8. Universal design.

Society

Plain language essential in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Your submission could focus on:

1. SDGs and plain language.
2. Plain language initiatives supporting immigrants, tourists, and foreign residents.
3. How law enforcement, court, and medical situations benefit from plain language.
4. Business implications for the ISO plain-language standard.
5. Democratization of language:  clear and transparent communication helps to meet the diverse needs of a society.

Applications and Technologies

Services and technologies associated with plain language. Your submission could focus on:

1. Plain Language in the Age of AI:  plain language for AI & machine translation.
2. Plain language in the FinTech industry.

Schedule

Call for Papers Opens: February 18, 2022 (Friday)

Call for Papers Closes: April 18, 2022 (Monday)

Decisions Made: No later than June 1, 2022 (Wednesday)

Speaker Agreements Due: No later than July 1, 2022 (Friday)

Speaker Photos and Bios Due: No later than July 29, 2022 (Friday)

Final PowerPoints Due: July 29 , 2022 (Friday)

More Info

Find out more here: https://clarity-tokyo.jp/

International Plain Language Day is today, October 13 2021.

Cheryl Stephens and Kate Harrison-Whiteside, the founders of PLAIN, established the day to celebrate and advocate for plain language around the world.

Throughout the past week, we shared ways to celebrate in our social media channels, and we want to share them here today. Do you have a favorite? Do you have a tip you want to share?

• Post it on social media with the hashtag #IPlainDay.
• Share it through our LinkedIn forum.

International Plain Language Day is coming up on 13 October. That’s one week to go and so much we can do to celebrate!

Cheryl Stephens and Kate Harrison-Whiteside established the day to celebrate and advocate for plain language around the world.

This year’s theme has been “Access for All: Plain Language is a Civil Right”. We had a two-event conference in 2020 and 2021 in collaboration with Clarity International and The Center for Plain Language.

Here are 3 ways to take part in International Plain Language Day wherever you are in the world.

1. Learn more. You can check out what this year’s conference was about here: https://www.accessforallconference.com/.
2. Join the conversation on social media with #IPlainDay. Tell us why you feel passionate about plain language, what projects you are working on, or what questions or ideas you have!
3. Share your latest plain language project in our LinkedIn forum.

Christine Mowat Plain Language Achievement Award

Christopher Balmford (left) presenting the award on behalf of PLAIN to Cinzia Theobald (center) and Rob Mcindon (right) from Enliven Victoria.

Cheryl Stephens Plain Language Innovation Award

The Cheryl Stephens Award honors Cheryl Stephens (co-founder of PLAIN) and encompasses the recognition to the intellectual contribution of the awardee, as well the gratitude from our plain language community for that contribution. This award is generously sponsored by the Skritswap organization founded by Melissa Kargiannakis, CEO at Skritswap, who is an outspoken and dynamic advocate for plain language.

The Cheryl Stephens Innovation Award is intended to recognize a person or organization whose plain language activities have brought significant benefit to the community through one or more of the following areas:

• Technology–adapting emerging technology to develop new services and systems
• Advocacy–extending the scope and influence of plain language internationally
• Research–strengthening the knowledge base for plain language, or
• Professional development–helping to develop the skills of plain language practitioners and the institutions supporting them

The winner this year has gone above and beyond with development of an online plain language program that addresses an array of needs in plain language training, reflects the plain language process from start to finish, and provides stand-online introductory and advanced courses as well a certificate of combined courses in different languages, starting with English, Spanish, and French, and with plans to add more languages in the near future! Last year, during the height of the pandemic, this team planned the first coordinated multilingual courses in alignment with the upcoming ISO Standard 24495 on Plain Language Principles.

It is with great pleasure that we presented the 2021 Cheryl Stephens Award to Plain Language Academies!

Kate Harrison-Whiteside, Co-Founder and Director at Plain Language Academies,
receives the award from PLAIN’s President Margrethe Kvarenes

Just added! Keynote speeches available on virtual conference platform.

When you register for the Access for All online conference, you get access to:

• Live Event between May 11-13,
• Recordings of live sessions as they come available,
• Recorded keynote speeches, posted on May 4,
• Pre- and Post-Conference Workshops, so far:
  -How to Produce a Comic-style Document here: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/AFAFreeWorkshop
  -Clear Communication Workshops: Teaching Techniques to Spark Enthusiasm in Organizations with Guillaume Rondeau and Isabelle Bourgeois of Educaloi
• World Cafes which open at the close of each day’s broadcast until 08:00 EDT the next day!

Keynotes are now available to watch and starting chatting with speakers and fellow attendees!

Discounted prices on registration

Did you know? You can get a discount on the price of registration if:

• you’re a member of PLAIN or attended the previous conference in October 2020
• you live in a lower- or middle-income country
• you want to register a group of 5 or more (contact jess@accessforallconference.org for registration)
• you are a student in university.

Stay connected

Access for All is as much about the conversations that continue afterwards as it is about the talks. Be sure to follow the conference account on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for the latest news.