Creating Inclusive Content for Diverse Audiences

Inclusive means more people can use it, which is mostly a question of structure and plainness rather than tone. Softening language usually adds words and removes the specific detail people came for, so your reading of it is probably right.

What actually widens the audience: short sentences with one idea each, the main point first rather than after the background, headings a reader can scan, and the concrete noun instead of the polite abstraction. Write appointment rather than engagement opportunity. Write you can bring a friend rather than accompaniment is welcomed.

Then the mechanics, which matter as much as the wording. Real text rather than words baked into an image, because an image cannot be enlarged cleanly, read aloud, or translated. Enough contrast to read on a cracked phone screen outdoors. Meaningful link text rather than click here. Captions on anything spoken. WCAG is the reference for all of that and it applies to a leaflet as much as to a website.

The image point stings, because our leaflet is a designed PDF with the text set inside the layout. It looks good and nobody can do anything with it.

That is the most common version of the problem, and worth being blunt about: a designed PDF is usually the least usable format you can choose for people with the least equipment. It is hard to read on a phone, it may not read aloud in order, it cannot be translated in the browser, and it often will not enlarge without sideways scrolling.

Keep it if it exists for printing. Also publish the same content as an ordinary web page and treat that as the real version. If a PDF has to be the only version, at least export it with real text and a reading order rather than as a flat image, and check it can be selected and copied.

One thing the first reply left out because it comes before all of it: ask which language people want it in, and do not decide from nationality. The language of school, the language of home and the language someone reads most comfortably are often three different languages.