Plain English Description

MAP

 Plain English - Citizen Services

The SMART Plain English program is designed to assist Federal, State and Local government agencies to communicate in clear, concise, plain language to all citizens. Plain English enforces simplification of forms, websites, printed information and makes computer-assisted language translations possible.

Contact us for a list of Plain Language reference materials and government style guides. Here is a Plain English sample of a Federal OSHA regulation.
OSHA

The SMART Plain English program is designed to meet language access regulations for Limited English Proficiency (LEP), Federal Plain Writing Act 2010, Section 508, and other digital document standards.


  Simplification at New York State Department of Motor Vehicles

DMV Specimen

The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) selected the SMART team to develop a Plain English program to simplify forms, web content and citizen driver information. The DMV serves approximately 18 million citizens who speak 80+ languages. The DMV uses the MAXit Checker and a set of customized DMV dictionaries to simplify the legal-ese to the 8th Grade Reading level.

The use of Plain English at NYS DMV offices has made customer interactions easier, simpler and faster.

Four easy steps and SMART AI tools to make a Plain English program

Microsoft Word is an ideal tool to write Plain English text. The point-and-click interface makes the editing of corrections and suggestions easy and fast. A customized Plain English program can be completed in 30 days.

Starter Kit

The MAXit Plain English Starter Kit is ideal for proof of concept to test Plain English. The kit includes one MAXit Checker license and a starter SMART Plain English dictionary. The dictionaries are easy to customize and scale for production.

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Related Topics


Benefits of Plain English

  • A language that reaches all citizens
  • Small vocabulary is ideal for Limited English Proficiency
  • Shorter sentences for better comprehension
  • Function for Six Sigma QA Reports
  • Plain English is easier to write
  • Ideal for Emergency Response Teams
  • Smaller vocabulary means faster learning
  • Ideal for collaborative authoring

SMART AI Capabilities

The SMART team has 20+ years of AI experience and language simplification.

  • SMART team is dedicated to simplification
  • SMART team has experienced linguists
  • SMART team understands taxonomies
  • SMART team understands AI/NLP
  • SMART team uses C/C++, C#, Java, Python and APIs

ENGLISH Comprehension Levels

CEFR

The SMART linguists carefully curate dictionaries to refer to CEFR European English language levels. Our dictionaries are set to the B2 level (intermediate). The USA reading level is set from 6th to 8th grade.

SMART AI Software

The SMART team offers three Artificial Intelligence tools to make text simplification faster and easier.