2021 Compliance Report

I. Senior Agency Official for Plain Writing

Teressa Wykpisz-Lee , Associate Administrator, Office of Strategic Communications

Plain Language coordinator:
Katherine Spivey, Plain Language Launcher, katherine.spivey@gsa.gov and plainlanguage@gsa.gov

II. Explain what specific types of agency communications have you released by making them available in a format that is consistent with the plain writing guidelines.

• Press releases
• GSA blog
• Great Government through Technology and GSA blogs
• GSA.gov webpages
• Intranet
• Playbooks
• Newsletters

III. Inform agency staff of Plain Writing Act’s requirements

• Information on the Act is posted on the agency intranet, with shortcut.
• Plain Language Group on Salesforce Chatter (formed 1/3/2012) over 65 members.
• Feature articles on GSA InSite 
• Mandatory online training class on Online University
• Writing and plain language tips featured on weekly newsletter, GSA Today

IV. Agency provided the following training sessions:

Summit

• One-day virtual summit with 10 speakers and 525 attendees (Sept 2021)
• Two-day virtual summit with 11 speakers with 1816 attendees (Oct 2020) 

PL-COP Meetings

• Better Digital Experience (June 2021) - 451 attendees
• Storytelling (July 2021) - 525 attendees
• Positioning Yourself as a Plain Language Editor (May 2021) - 348 attendees
• How Testing Documents Can Improve Plain Language Compliance (April 2021) - 609 attendees
• Plain Language and Section 508/Accessibility (March 2021) - 635 attendees
• Visual Teaching (February 2021) - 240 attendees
• 2020 Federal Report Card (January 2021) - 103 attendees)

V. Ongoing compliance/ sustaining change

Name of agency contact for compliance issues: Katherine Spivey

VI. Agency’s plain writing website

Website address: www.gsa.gov/plainlanguage

VII. Customer Satisfaction Evaluation after Experiencing Plain Writing Communications

In July 2011, we created and posted an email address, plainlanguage@gsa.gov, published on our plain language page, www.gsa.gov/plainlanguage. In 2021, no one contacted us asking to clarify any GSA.gov page. We did get spam.