Nominations for Simplified English International Standard Working Group

As part of STC's memberships in the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA), STC has the opportunity to nominate experts to join the working group for the new Simplified English international standard.

A new ISO standard is being developed for Simplified English. Simplified English was originally developed as a “controlled language” (in the information and documentation meaning of the term) for aerospace industry maintenance manuals. It offers a carefully limited and standardized subset of English. However, it cannot be regarded as a sort of deprecated English. Simplified English usually has a lexicon of approved words, and those words can only be used in certain ways. For example, the word close can be used in the phrase “Close the door” but not “do not go close to the landing gear.”

For usability professionals it is clear that making text understandable is very challenging, especially in an international environment. Simplified English can help in several respects – depending on the application. The aerospace standard is actually an industry-regulated writing standard for aerospace maintenance documentation. It is not intended for use as a general writing standard. The US government's “Plain English” lacks the strict vocabulary restrictions of the aerospace standard, but it represents an attempt at a more general writing standard. In many countries “ambiguous” product descriptions may invoke the liability of the producer (or importer or distributor).

Anyone interested should contact Annette Reilly, STC Standards Council Manager,  annette.d.reilly@lmco.com, by 13 November with a brief statement of experience and qualifications in this area.

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