Weeknotes of Adrián Ortega, content designer at the Centre for Digital Public Services in Wales.

What I’ve done

Language matters roadshow

Attended the language matters roadshow both online and in Cardiff that CDPS and the Welsh language commissioner organised to promote the importance of the Welsh language in the delivery of services, and different ways of working.
It was fascinating to listen to people from different organisations talk about their approach to the Welsh language, and their obstacles to do a better job.
There’s a general assumption that the majority of the population of Wales are monolingual, with around 19% being speakers of both Welsh and English. I wonder what actual the percentage of monoglots vs bilingual or multilingual people in Wales is, and not only speakers of English and Welsh.

This is one of my projects at CDPS, which explores how to help improve the delivery of cost of living support while embedding better bilingual design in services.
Poor communication and expectation management increases stress and anxiety, especially for people already in vulnerable situation and facing financial hardship.
Our plan is to work with a local authority to look into their communication and management of expectations of applicants of financial support: mapping out users, their needs (inc. communication needs) and the service and its current communication touchpoints.

I’ve been thinking lately about bilingual communications in Wales (particularly emails and SMS) and the balance between bilingualism and accessibility.
Does vertical or side-by-side layout of bilingual communications with Welsh first present challenges to non-Welsh speakers using assistive technology, like screen readers? I’d like to look into this.
I don’t like the idea of creating language bubbles by communicating with users in their preferred language only, I think it’s important to make the Welsh language visible.