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Another year is almost done, and we are taking a look back over the last 12 months to highlight some of the important work that the Clear Language Lab accomplished this year. Take a look at some of the initiatives that our team (Melanie, Sarah, and Tiara) worked on. (If you are newer to our work, you can also check out this Lab program overview, too, to learn more about us.)
January
Melanie co-authored a research article, Lessons from a plain language analysis: U.S. Clean Air Act Title V public notices as barriers to environmental justice, part of the January edition of the journal, Environmental Science + Policy.
We also facilitated a series of webinars around plain language, organizational health literacy, and health equity as part of our collaboration with Cook County Department of Public Health's community health worker initiative.
March – May
In the spring, we were able to present at several conferences:
Melanie and Sarah presented at NTEN’s NTC conference (including a panel with our Community Voices Project members).
We went to Madison Wisconsin to present at the Health Literacy Collaborative Summit, led by Wisconsin Literacy.
We presented at Institute for Healthcare Advancement’s annual conference - more than 90 people attended our roundtable on using plain language WITHIN the workplace.
Sarah also presented at On the Road to Literacy, an annual conference for teachers, tutors, and program coordinators serving adult learners in Illinois and organized by Literacy Volunteers of Illinois.
The Lab also celebrated the work of Corporation for Supportive Housing this year as our annual honoree moving the needle on plain language. We had a great discussion with Stephanie Sideman, Richard Rowe, and Julie Nelson about the ways they have integrated plain language lens into their work and why it is critical for the housing sector to make content more accessible.
June
We shared out our 2023 Community Voices Project Survey summary in June to highlight our key learnings and why this part of our work is so critical. Describing how they talk about the group, one member said, "It's a good group because anyone who works with the group can help their own community."
We finished up our fiscal year - more than 1000 professional took part in our programming from 400+ organizations from July 2023 to June 2024.
July
In July, we grew, and Tiara joined the team! We also started the Skillbuilders series to offer short, microlearning opportunities on high impact topics.
August - September
As summer wound down, we revamped our plain language resource library, and Melanie participated in the Center for Plain Language’s annual federal report card review project, providing feedback on two federal government website pages. (We will be sure to share when the Center publishes it!)
October
Sarah participated in a roundtable on community engagement at the Third Annual Chicagoland Workforce Development Symposium alongside staff from Women Employed and Lighthouse Foundation. It was a great opportunity to share about our Community Voices members and encourage other organizations to explore how they can prioritize this further in their own work.
Over the last several years, hundreds of professionals have participated in our signature plain language series, Writing for Understanding. This year we were pleased to pilot our Writing for Understanding 2 series! This new training gave intermediate plain language users more advanced strategies to use in their work. Be on the lookout for next year’s sessions if you have already taken Writing for Understanding 1 and are interested in going further. Or check out Writing for Understanding 1's March cohort if you are new to this series.
This month also saw our highest visited blog post of the year: When the Unexpected Happens gives strategies for maintaining a safe space when unplanned responses occur in a group discussion.
December
We are closing out the year with our Community Voices Project going strong - 89% of participants from our fiscal year 2024 have taken part in at least one session in fiscal year 2025, and we’ve had some wonderful new folx join us too!
All in all, it was an amazing 2024 at the Clear Language Lab. We look forward to continuing to connect with others on the quest to make everyday information more accessible in 2025.
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