To mark the day, help the National Adult Literacy (NALA) reach 1,000 members by joining the LinkedIn Plain English Network. You will be part of a vibrant network of plain language advocates with information on events, resources and answers to your questions. Being a member shows you support ethical communication – communication that serves all of us but particularly people who have literacy needs (1 in 5 adults in Ireland*).

Why not share some of the news below with your team and join one of our webinars over the coming months?

What is Plain Language Day?

Today, 13 October is International Plain Language (IPL) Day – the 26th anniversary of the United States (US) Plain Writing Act. It is also one-year since NALA won the Cheryl Stephens Innovation Award in plain language at the Brussels Plain Language Experience.

What is NALA’s role in plain language?

In NALA we advocate for plain language to be used in communication with the public. This year our editing and training team have been very busy with over 1,000 people trained across 60 different training events and close to 80 documents edited into plain English.

Recent developments to support

There have been many exciting developments in plain language this year including the ISO (International Standard Organisation) Plain Language Standard Part 3: Science Writing.

We are looking forward to Part 4: Requirements for implementing the plain language principles in organizations.

NALA will feature in the upcoming Clarity Journal with an article about plain language training for legal professionals. This builds on the article that features in the PLAIN Journal that captured the learning we shared at the 2025 Plain Language Experience Conference in Brussels. If you are interested in reading either article, do consider joining the organisations.

You can also do a free short eLearning course called Let’s Talk About Plain Language from the Adult Literacy for Life Office.

Upcoming NALA events

We will be doing a free one-hour webinar for community and voluntary organisations using plain language in your leaflets and forms on Friday 20 November as part of the Literacy Open Doors 2026 webinar series.

You can also sign up for 11 November Online Plain English Training. You will get expert instructions in a friendly open setting.

You can watch some of NALA’s past webinars on YouTube including Building a culture of plain English in your org: Top tips to become a Plain English Champion.

Join PLAIN

To support, plain language you can also join the Plain Language Association International.

You will get access to lots of expert webinars including their recent one on using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to support plain language.

Thank you for supporting plain language.

*Sources

-Figures for reading and maths: Adults aged 16-65. Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Survey of Adult Skills 2023
-Figures for digital skills: Adults aged 16-74. Source: Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI, 2025)