Adopting the ISO plain language standard: checklist

This document gives you the basic steps to implement the ISO plain language standard in your country. It’s a checklist version of the document called Adopting the ISO plain language standard: guide.

Pick a target date for each action in the list. That will help you stay on track.

1. Join the Localization and Implementation Committee by emailing the committee chair using our contact form. To join, you must be a member of Clarity, the Center for Plain Language or PLAIN.

2. Find out if your country’s National Standards Body (NSB) is a member of the ISO committee that manages the plain language project. That committee is ISO Technical Committee 37, Language and terminology (TC 37).

3. If your country’s National Standards Body:

• is a member of TC 37, then you can go to the next steps below 
• is not a member of TC 37, then you can encourage it to join

What’s your target date for these steps?

1. Funding

• Does your country’s NSB fund the work to adopt ISO standards?
• Or does it expect the relevant industry etc. to fund that work? If so, how much will it cost?

2. Process

• What is your NSB’s process for adopting an ISO standard?
• Who can be involved in the NSB’s committees or working groups that do the work (localizing, translating, etc.) to enable the NSB to adopt the standard?
• How can plain language practitioners and advocates in your country apply to be involved in that work?

What’s your target date for these steps?

Find out if there are people from your country who are already involved in plain language work:

• people on TC 37 (your NSB can tell you)
• people on the Federation’s Localization and Implementation Committee (email the committee chair the committee chair using our contact form)
• members of Clarity, PLAIN or the Center for Plain Language who might be interested in helping you

What’s your target date for these steps?

1. If you will be involved in translating the standard, connect with people in other countries that use your language(s).

2. Determine key terminology, for example: what words will you use to translate author, reader, document, etc.

3. Connect with the people on the Localization and Implementation Committee who are working on determining key terminology. Do this by emailing the committee chair using our contact form.

What’s your target date for these steps?

1. Set some goals for yourself and items you can track, to keep your work moving. You can use this checklist to keep track of these items, along with who you contacted, when you contacted them and what the results were.

2. If you want to learn from what others are doing and share your successes with them, you can join the Localization and Implementation Committee. To do this, send us an email using our contact form.

What’s your target date for these steps?