Designing Safety Instructions for Foreign-Language Audiences

1. Designing Safety Instructions for Foreign-Language Audiences Jack Crawford LCC 3403B Training Module

2. Overview General Safety Instructions Language-neutral Approach Language-neutral Approach Goals Benefits Guide Example

3. Guide for General Safety Instructions • The subject of safety instructions sets is danger and risks. • Make an effort to avoid scaring the audience. • No “horror stories” – if each risk is stated clearly, there is no need for illustrative anecdotes • Avoid statistics (i.e. _% of workers die from _) Language-neutral Goals General Guide Benefits Example

4. Guide for General Safety Instructions • Minimize ambiguity. • Imagine ways someone could misconstrue what the instructions are saying. • Always think about this in terms of the intended audience. • Steer clear of words with multiple potentially applicable meanings. Language-neutral Goals General Guide Benefits Example

5. The Language-Neutral Approach • Often, when creating instructions, the audience of the final product is unknown. • Other times, audience members come from very diverse backgrounds. Language-neutral Goals General Guide Benefits Example

6. The Language-Neutral Approach • In this case, it’s usually best to take a language-neutral approach. Instruction sets made using this method should be easily understood by everyone, regardless of language. • Generally language-neutral instruction sets are also designed to communicate well to people of any cultural background. Language-neutral Goals General Guide Benefits Example

7. Goals • To minimize amount of text • Replace text with recognized symbols where possible. • Replace text with images where possible. • When it’s impossible to replace text, repeat the necessary text in multiple languages. • To avoid culture-specific terminology Language-neutral Goals General Guide Benefits Example

8. Benefits of a Language-neutral Approach • A larger audience can be reached since the instructions aren’t just targeted at those fluent in a specific language • It leads to simpler instruction sets, meaning everyone is more likely to pay attention to them Language-neutral Goals General Guide Benefits Example

9. Guide for Safety Instructions for Foreign-Language Audiences • Make a list of symbols that are universally understood in each targeted audience’s culture • Research the audiences’ preferred rhetorical styles – when text is necessary, write in a form more likely to be understood Language-neutral Goals General Guide Benefits Example

10. Example IKEA chair assembly instructions • On page 2, the use of contrast helps communicate the message. • Contrast in the emotions on the person’s face • Contrast between the breaking object on the ground and the non-broken object on a rug • Contrast between the person’s confusion when working alone and lack of confusion when calling IKEA Language-neutral Goals General Guide Benefits Example

11. Example IKEA chair assembly instructions • One negative aspect is the use of “CLICK!” to show that something should make a clicking sound. • Since “CLICK!” is not understood in every language, it should be replaced by a symbol generally correlated with a clicking sound. Language-neutral Goals General Guide Benefits Example

12. Example IKEA chair assembly instructions • Notice that all of page 5 is dedicated to including one short message in many languages. • It was important to convey that one particular piece of the chair shouldn’t be removed, but it was too difficult to communicate that using graphics alone. Language-neutral Goals General Guide Benefits Example

13. References • Anderson, Paul. Technical Communication: A Reader-Centered Approach. 8th ed. (Cengage, 2013) • Evia, Carlos and Ashley Patriarca. (2012). Beyond Compliance: Participatory Translation of Safety Communication for Latino Construction Workers. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 26(3), 340- 367. http://jbt.sagepub.com.prx.library.gatec h.edu/content/26/3/340.full.pdf+html