How to Get Help from Pine Tree

Offices

Priorities

Funding

Eligibility

Annual Report

Accessibility and Usability for Statewide Websites

LSC Technology Innovation Grants Conference
Austin, Texas 2006

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Readability

"Be obscure clearly! Be wild of tongue in a way we can understand!" - The Illustrated Elements of Style

• Re-learn how to write in plain English.
• Think about how you explain a basic legal procedure to a client sitting in your office.
• Make everything shorter. This is the Internet.
• Use steps and bulleted lists.
• Preview, view and review.

Favorite resources:

• Elements of Style, Strunk and White
• Transcend
  
Readability Tutorial
Low Literacy Education: Checklist
Web Accessibility Checklist
• Plain Language.gov
  This group of government workers has been organizing for years to improve their agencies’ written communications. This may be the oldest on-line guide for teaching others to write simply.
Writing Reader-Friendly Documents

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Designing a Useable Website

• Keep it simple.
• Avoid overuse of .pdf documents.
• Rule of seven.
• Keep pages short.
• Field test your navigation structure and other site design features.
• Does your audience enjoy looking at your site? Do they find it easy to use and useful?

Favorite resources:

• Jacob Neilsen's useit.com
  Author of the classic text: Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity. Nielson continually posts articles on simple web design, pitfalls to avoid, inexpensive methods for field testing, etc.
• Plain Language.gov: Usefulness in Web Writing
• Quality Web Content Rachel McAlpine posts great content on content from New Zealand.
• Useability.gov U.S. DHHS site, with links to other usability sites and research

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Last, but not least...

Our own legal services tech community posts materials from all past NTAP trainings on all matters technical.

Look through their state website listings. You will find there, for example:

• Content Development for Client Portals
• Websites - Optimizing Accessibility and Language
• Plain Language and Document Creation
• Website Content: Guidelines, Strategies and Resources

Kathleen Caldwell
Pine Tree Legal Assistance
www.ptla.org
www.helpmelaw.org
January 23, 2006