> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://openup.gitbook.io/handbook/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://openup.gitbook.io/handbook/how-we-work/tool-development/making-government-accessible.md).

# Making government accessible

How we write and design to make government accessible to citizens

## People will eventually need technical terminology

* People will need to use the correct technical terms when interacting with bureaucracy that uses a technical term
  * rather than our special "non-technical" word which might be different from someone else's special non-techical term.
* Don't try and act like the "jargon" doesn't exist. Hiding it is harmful
* Find a way to make the jargon accessible
  * Provide more accessible terms that can catch someone's eye and for search engines to match non-expert searches
  * Provide the technical term early on in the user's journey along with an explanation so that they can learn the term
    * This is also important for technical users of your site, who would be looking for the technical term

### Example

![An example of trying to bridge between words people use and technical terms government uses](https://4231451065-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-Ly4_F7g57KhwwrcB8r3%2F-MA5P1FHrSkdSr7fIF3F%2F-MA5PCOoVFanasONM_rd%2FScreenshot_2020-06-18_09-50-42.png?alt=media\&token=8bd93c0b-0460-4119-8195-099390a224ba)

The technical term is "Section 32" or "Section 32 reporting"

The non-expert self-explanatory term is "In-year monitoring" or "In-year reporting"

This might not be beautiful design, but it makes a lot more sense than the important destination we want to help people discover:

![Example of extremely important information that would probably not get noticed by non-experts](https://4231451065-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-Ly4_F7g57KhwwrcB8r3%2F-MA5P1FHrSkdSr7fIF3F%2F-MA5PuTItS9bdrCON13X%2FScreenshot_2020-06-18_09-53-01.png?alt=media\&token=eae3f3f9-feae-4bc6-a272-a0fdd5636ce8)

## Break up walls of text

* We break content up into smaller sections
  * give them headings that represent the content of the section to catch the eye
* We break the sections up into subsections that each carry some concept, even if they end up being one sentence.
  * Give them headings that represent the content of the subsection to catch the eye

### Example

We often have researchers prepare a body of content that unpacks an issue in a google doc where it's easy to comment, suggest, review, and them mark approval of a specific version.

![Super helpful but hard to read content produced by researchers](https://4231451065-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-Ly4_F7g57KhwwrcB8r3%2F-MA5Q8c2udX1viBmCohK%2F-MA5RIXWfdbMSB6E-bZc%2FScreenshot_2020-06-18_09-59-18.png?alt=media\&token=ec80f565-8250-45f6-be36-fc4d2436c50b)

We then figure out how to arrange that content to be easily-consumed on the web, especially on a mobile phone using the above approach.

![Same content broken up with headings and subheadings](https://4231451065-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-Ly4_F7g57KhwwrcB8r3%2F-MA5Q8c2udX1viBmCohK%2F-MA5RQhKG4AhCRz9Nqwt%2FScreenshot_2020-06-18_09-59-31.png?alt=media\&token=4322884a-8f31-436d-b7e7-a943a23b1a88)