"49% of adults in Canada have below high-school literacy levels, and 17% are unable to follow written instructions or read maps."
"Half adults in the U.S. struggle to read a book written for eighth-graders."
If your first instinct is 'why are people ‘dumb’?’ you are elitist and not inclusive. There are plenty of immigrants and others. As web professionals it should be your job to include everyone
i might even go as far as to say that outside of literary fiction and personal essays, there are very few areas of writing where plain english wouldn't be better.
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use plain english. except in literary fiction or personal essays.
@slothrop cluttered thinking = cluttered writing. I think only inexperienced writers would defend cluttered writing at all. Many experienced writers can ‘code switch’
@skinnylatte This probably should have been a quote post vs. reply ... I'm never quite sure on this platform since quote posts aren't done the same way as in other places.
I would say that if your first instinct is to ask "why can't people read" then you are inquisitive and trying to understand the problem in order to find the best way to address it, and yes, using a writing style that is broadly understood is part of addressing the issue.
@ErisCaffee the second part of that, which I should included in my original toot, is ‘why are people stupid?’ Which comes up frequently in accessibility discussions when this topic is brought up. Which is elitist. I shall amend the original toot to reflect that instead.
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