Publiclanguage

Publiclanguage is a design and practice of creating communications intended for broad public consumption, combining plain language, terminology management, and accessibility to ensure information is understandable across diverse audiences. It is not a particular dialect or language but a set of standards and processes.

It emerged from plain language movements and government communication reforms in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, influenced by digital government, open data, accessibility standards, and multilingual contexts.

Core principles include clarity, conciseness, unambiguity, inclusivity, and consistency. It uses controlled vocabularies, plain language editing, readability assessments, glossaries, and translation workflows. It often employs audience profiling, testing with representative readers, and style guides.

Applications include public websites, forms, emergency notices, regulatory disclosures, and civic tech interfaces. It supports multilingual access via translations and localization standards and can be integrated with accessibility practices outlined in WCAG-like guidelines.

Criticisms: risk of oversimplification, paternalism, homogenization eroding local idioms, and resource demands for translation and maintenance. Effectiveness depends on ongoing governance and community involvement.

In practice, publiclanguage interfaces with plain language guidelines, accessibility standards, and public-information policy, and is evaluated through user testing and performance metrics.