Plain Language
Break it Down
By Jeffrey Johnson
I’m an advocate for people with intellectual disability. I serve as a co‑chair with the Missouri Department of Mental Health, and I advocate for people with disabilities as well as those without. I have participated in ASAN’s focus groups, giving feedback on easy-read resources.
What I remember about the focus group was that we talked about a lot of things, you know, dealing with race, plain language, putting words into information for people with intellectual disability that they might not understand. We also talked a little bit about how race plays a big role in the disability community and in schools. We talked about the school pipeline to prison, how that is systematic racism.
We want to understand what’s going on with us.
I think people with intellectual disability, if they’re working on a project, I think it’s very important that they get paid for that because they do a lot of volunteering of their time, working not just on a project but also helping in the community or whatever the case might be. I just think that they should get paid. It’s not always about money to people with intellectual disability, but they do have bills, they do have things like putting food on the table or whatever they might need. They should get paid, and I’m not talking about minimum wage. If I’m gonna help you do something, I expect to get something out of it. It might not be much, but at least appreciate me. Give me something to appreciate the work that I’m doing to help you.
The reason why I think plain language should be plain for folks to understand is because nowadays, people are using language that most people, not just people with disabilities, but also those not with disabilities, might not understand. When you abbreviate things, or you are just saying things out loud that people can’t pronounce or might not understand, you have to break it down so that people can understand it. We have to make it plain to where we want people to understand what's going on. It could be at a doctor’s office. We want to understand what’s going on with us. Break it down!