The Plain Writing Act of 2010 requires all federal agencies to use “clear government communication that the public can understand and use.”
Our Plain Language Pledge
We are committed to providing information in plain language so that all people can understand our safety recommendations and act to prevent the recurrence of transportation accidents. We use plain language to write public facing materials, such as reports, safety alerts, news releases, and advocacy products, to help readers understand the gravity of our findings and the need for implementing our recommendations. Here’s a few examples of how we are following plain language principles to communicate clearly with you:
- Each new investigations page features a plain language overview of what happened, what we found, and what we recommended. If you need further details, we invite you to dive into the full report and associate materials linked on the investigations page.
- Our new report template has a plain language executive summary in addition to defining acronyms and abbreviations, providing clear diagrams and images, and providing content in a logical in an organized manner.
- We revised our online content to provide clear and well-organized information so the public, media, Congress, local legislators, transportation advocates, and survivors, families, and friends can easily find the information they seek, understand it, and use it. We promise to regularly review our web content and continue to improve readability and ease of finding information.
Staff training
All new NTSB employees take mandatory online plain language training while onboarding. We offer at least one refresher course a year taught by the Plain Language Action and Information Network (PLAIN). On our intranet site, we:
- Have a dedicated plain language page that links to the Federal Plain Language Guidelines and additional resources from PLAIN.
- Provide a calendar of upcoming, free plain language training available to all government employees via the Digital Gov plain language community of practice.
How You Can Help
Tell us how we're doing! If you have trouble understanding any of our documents or website material, please let us know by using our Contact Us Form and selecting “Comment or concern with a web page” to provide feedback.
