Be an early adopter of the world's first plain language standard. Prove your translations are clear, accessible, and reader-focused. Rapidly growing demand from public sector and regulated industries.
ISO 24495-1:2023, "Plain language — Part 1: Governing principles and guidelines," is the world's first international standard for plain language. Published in June 2023, it establishes a set of governing principles and guidelines for creating documents that are clear, concise, and easily understood by their intended audience. For translation agencies, this standard represents a significant opportunity to differentiate their services in a market that increasingly values clarity and accessibility.
Plain language is not a new concept — governments, healthcare organizations, and financial institutions have been advocating for clearer communication for decades. What ISO 24495-1 does is formalize these principles into an internationally recognized framework that can be applied, measured, and certified. This transforms plain language from a subjective aspiration into a verifiable competence.
The standard defines four core principles that every plain language document should satisfy. These principles apply equally to original writing and to translation, making them directly relevant to language service providers.
ISO 24495-1 is built around four interconnected principles that define what makes a document "plain":
Traditional translation focuses on accurately conveying the source text's meaning in the target language. Plain language translation goes further: it ensures that the translated text is not just accurate, but also clear, accessible, and effective for the target audience. This is a higher-value service that addresses a growing market need.
Consider a common scenario: a government document is written in bureaucratic language in the source language. A traditional translation would faithfully reproduce that bureaucratic style in the target language. A plain language translation would convert the content into clear, accessible language that citizens can actually understand and act upon. This is increasingly what government clients want and require.
ISO 24495-1 was published in June 2023, making it one of the newest ISO standards relevant to the translation industry. Agencies that certify early gain several competitive advantages:
Governments around the world are enacting plain language legislation that creates direct demand for certified plain language translation services. The United States Plain Writing Act of 2010 requires federal agencies to use plain language in all public-facing documents. The European Union's commitment to citizen-friendly communication means all EU institutional documents should be accessible. Canada's official languages requirements increasingly reference plain language standards. Australia, New Zealand, and the UK all have active plain language programs for government communications.
For translation agencies, this means a growing number of public sector clients who specifically need translated documents that are not just accurate, but genuinely clear and comprehensible to the general public.
The European Accessibility Act (EAA), Directive (EU) 2019/882, which member states were required to apply from June 2025, mandates that a wide range of products and services be accessible to persons with disabilities. While the EAA does not explicitly reference ISO 24495-1, plain language is widely recognized as a fundamental component of accessibility. Translation agencies that can demonstrate plain language competence through ISO 24495-1 certification are well-positioned to meet the translation needs of organizations complying with the EAA.
Healthcare is one of the fastest-growing segments for plain language translation. Patient information leaflets, consent forms, post-discharge instructions, health insurance documents, and public health communications all benefit enormously from plain language principles. Research consistently shows that health literacy directly affects health outcomes, making plain language in healthcare translations not just a quality issue but a public health issue.
Financial regulators increasingly require that consumer-facing documents be written in plain, understandable language. The EU's PRIIPs Regulation requires Key Information Documents to be "accurate, fair, clear and not misleading." MiFID II requires that information to clients be "fair, clear and not misleading." Insurance Distribution Directive documents must be "comprehensible." Translation agencies serving financial services clients need to demonstrate they can produce translations that meet these plain language requirements.
Product manufacturers are recognizing that clear documentation reduces support costs, improves customer satisfaction, and reduces liability. Translation agencies that can deliver plain language translations of user manuals, product guides, safety instructions, and warranty documents offer measurable business value to their clients.
ISO 24495-1 establishes principles and guidelines that apply to all documents intended for any audience.
Identify and analyze the target audience for each translation project. Understand their knowledge level, expectations, context of use, and purpose for reading the document. This analysis drives all subsequent plain language decisions.
Ensure translated content contains only information the reader needs. Remove redundant content, organize information by reader priority, and ensure every section serves a clear purpose for the target audience.
Structure translations so readers can quickly locate information. Use clear headings, logical document flow, effective visual hierarchy, tables of contents for longer documents, and consistent formatting patterns.
Use clear, appropriate language for the target audience. Choose common words over jargon (or define technical terms when necessary), write clear sentences, use active voice where appropriate, and organize paragraphs logically.
Ensure readers can act on the information provided. Translations should enable the reader to complete tasks, make informed decisions, or understand their situation. Test usability with representative readers where possible.
Implement methods for evaluating whether translations meet plain language criteria. This can include readability metrics, expert review, user testing, and structured checklists aligned with ISO 24495-1 principles.
TranslationCert helps you become among the first certified plain language translation providers.
Evaluate your current translation processes against ISO 24495-1 requirements. Our assessment identifies where your workflows already incorporate plain language principles and where enhancements are needed.
Receive documentation templates covering audience analysis procedures, plain language style guides, quality evaluation checklists, and training materials. Designed specifically for translation agencies adopting ISO 24495-1.
Train your translators and reviewers on ISO 24495-1 principles and their application in translation workflows. Our materials cover all four core principles with practical examples across common document types.
BALTUM auditors assess your plain language translation processes, including audience analysis documentation, translation samples, review procedures, and quality evaluation methods.
Receive your ISO 24495-1 certificate and certification mark. As an early adopter, leverage your certification in marketing to public sector, healthcare, financial services, and accessibility-focused clients.
Early certification in the world's first plain language standard delivers powerful advantages.
Be among the first certified plain language translation providers worldwide. Early adopter positioning creates lasting competitive advantages.
Government agencies increasingly require plain language competence from translation vendors. Certification satisfies these requirements immediately.
Position your agency as an accessibility-compliant translation provider, meeting the growing demand driven by EU and national accessibility legislation.
Access the rapidly growing health literacy market where plain language translations directly improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.
Meet regulatory requirements for clear financial communication in translated consumer documents, insurance policies, and investment information.
Plain language translation is a premium service that commands higher rates than standard translation, as it requires additional expertise and adds measurable value.
Plain language principles make translations genuinely better. Clearer translations reduce client revision requests and increase end-user satisfaction.
ISO 24495-1 pairs powerfully with ISO 17100. Together, they demonstrate both process quality and output clarity.
Everything you need to know about ISO 24495-1 plain language certification for translation agencies.
Absolutely not. This is the most common misconception about plain language. ISO 24495-1 is about making information accessible and understandable to the intended audience, not about reducing complexity or removing technical content. A plain language translation of a medical document for healthcare professionals would still use appropriate medical terminology, but it would be structured clearly, use consistent terms, and avoid unnecessary complexity. A plain language translation of the same topic for patients would use simpler vocabulary and more explanations. The key is matching the language to the audience's needs.
While ISO 24495-1 is primarily designed for informational and functional texts rather than literary works, creative translators can absolutely benefit. Many literary translators also work on commercial, marketing, or informational texts where plain language skills add significant value. The certification can open doors to new client segments — government, healthcare, financial services — without limiting your creative translation work. Think of it as adding a valuable specialization to your portfolio.
Governments worldwide are enacting legislation that requires public-facing documents to be written in plain language. The US Plain Writing Act, EU institutional accessibility requirements, and similar laws in Canada, Australia, and many European countries create direct demand for translation agencies that can demonstrate plain language competence. Public sector procurement processes increasingly reference ISO 24495-1 or plain language principles as evaluation criteria for translation vendors.
The European Accessibility Act requires that products and services be accessible to persons with disabilities. While the EAA does not explicitly cite ISO 24495-1, plain language is universally recognized as a fundamental component of accessibility. Clear, understandable language benefits everyone but is especially critical for people with cognitive disabilities, learning difficulties, or limited language proficiency. ISO 24495-1 certification demonstrates that your translations meet the clarity expectations underlying the EAA's accessibility requirements.
The standard establishes language-neutral principles. The four core principles — relevance, findability, comprehensibility, and usability — apply to all languages. Specific implementation details may vary: languages differ in their conventions for sentence structure, formality, readability measures, and clarity norms. ISO 24495-1 provides the framework; your translation expertise determines how those principles are best applied in each target language.
ISO 24495-1 certification through TranslationCert typically takes 2-3 weeks. Since this is a relatively new standard, our documentation package and implementation support are designed to build genuine plain language competence efficiently. Agencies with existing quality management systems (ISO 17100, ISO 9001) will find the process especially streamlined.
No. ISO 24495-1 certification means you have the competence and processes to deliver plain language translations when clients need them. Not every project requires plain language treatment — technical specifications, legal contracts, and literary works may have their own conventions. However, you will find that plain language principles improve all types of translation work, even when you are not specifically delivering a "plain language" project.
ISO 24495-1 does not prescribe specific readability formulas or tools. Instead, it emphasizes evaluating documents against the four core principles using appropriate methods: expert review against plain language checklists, readability metrics suitable for the target language, user testing with representative readers, and structured peer review processes. TranslationCert provides evaluation templates and guidance on selecting appropriate assessment methods for your language pairs.