Montebello, June 20, 2003
E-Government: Developing a Citizen-Centred Approach
Dr. Dyane Adam - Commissioner of Official Languages
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Good morning everyone,
In Canada, as elsewhere in the industrialized world, governments are increasingly using technology and the Internet to improve their citizens' access to information and government services.
I am not certain whether John A. Macdonald or George-Étienne Cartier had the Internet in mind at the Charlottetown Conference in 1864. The Internet was beyond our imaginations barely 20 years ago. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms was not written in PDF or HTML format. And until just recently, there was not a whisper about virtual consultation or government on-line. We must acknowledge that our way of operating has changed a great deal now. We are in the midst of a veritable technological revolution in the federal government.
As Commissioner of Official Languages, I strongly support this shift to e-government. I recognize, however, that with great visions come great challenges, and even golden opportunities to move forward. How are we going to achieve this shift to e-government?
In my opinion, we need a cultural change right within the public service. The current technological developments must also be accompanied by a citizen-centred approach. We must not only adopt the technology, but also foster the emergence of a stronger focus on the needs of citizens who are, as we all know, the number one clients of government services. The primary challenge for e-government is not technological; it is human.
I will outline the elements of this citizen-centred approach by touching on four points.
Language is the essential medium of the information provided to citizens.
1. The government must make every effort necessary to communicate the right information and to make it understandable.
2. The government must also ensure that citizens have access to the means of finding the information they seek.
3. Your role in managing information makes a major contribution to this technological and cultural transformation.
1. Language as the medium for information
Abraham Maslow said: “When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail.” It should not surprise you, therefore, that the Commissioner of Official Languages would focus on language-related issues.
With regard to the subject at hand, as in psychology, we must not look merely at the surface. An in-depth analysis is needed. The government produces, processes and disseminates a phenomenal amount of information. But there is one thing underlying the information you manage: language. Language is the medium for information.
This means that, on the Internet as elsewhere, the federal government must take care to address citizens in the official language of their choice, regardless of their place of residence. This is not only a matter of respecting the Official Languages Act, but also of maintaining a citizen-centred approach.
Citizens generally wish to be served in the language they know best. Over seven million Canadians are Francophone. The vast majority of these individuals prefer to surf the Net in French, just as they prefer to read a novel or talk to their banker in French. The same holds true for their dealings with their government.
Studies show that citizens understand written information twice as well when it is presented in their mother tongue than in their second language1. Thus it is more efficient to use French rather than English to convey information to a Francophone, even one from British Columbia.
Even for a bilingual person, it is 33 to 56 percent easier to remember a piece of information communicated in one's mother tongue than in one's second language2.
These figures are nothing new. What is new is that, with the Internet, it not only pays to serve the client – the citizen – in his or her language; it is also less and less expensive to do so. In the past, we often spoke of providing linguistic minority services “where numbers warrant.” With the Web, the numbers always, or almost always, warrant doing so.
2. Ensuring that citizens receive the message
This brings me to my second point. E-government will achieve the expected results only if the government is careful to communicate with Internet users in a language they understand.
This is not always the case. As a matter of fact, too often government Web site designers do not take citizens' reading skills into consideration. Reading ability varies greatly from one person to another.
According to the results of international tests carried out during the 1990s, one-quarter of citizens of OECD countries did not have the necessary reading skills to surf the Internet without difficulty3.
Canada is no exception. Approximately one Canadian in four, aged 16 and over, has difficulty reading written documents4. These individuals find it easier to read very simple material with well-presented content. Moreover, they are able to understand the forms, plans, tables and graphs they are shown, as long as what they are asked to do with them is simple5.
The figures also show that Canadians having neither English nor French as their mother tongue encounter special problems. Even when they have been in the country for many years, these individuals, on average, have greater difficulty than their fellow Canadians in understanding a text or government form6.
In view of these findings, what should we do?
Federal departments and agencies must ensure that all documents published on the Web are linguistically correct. As well, the information must be straightforward, in language that is as simple and clear as possible.
We do not write for the Web in the way that we normally write. As Jacob Nielsen, a recognized expert on accessibility issues, noted, “people rarely read a Web page word for word7.” As a matter of fact, they take a quick glance to retrieve what is important. This means that all Web pages ought to be easily skimmed and written in a clear and well-organized style.
This applies equally to all the documents that government departments and agencies produce. One of the greatest challenges ahead is integrating a simple style of writing into our organizational culture. From the outset, information must be written with the citizens who are going to use it in mind. The need to write in "plain language" is indeed one of the requirements of the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada8.
Have you taken the time yet to read the report entitled Internal Audit - Management of the Compensation Reserve by the Treasury Board Secretariat? Its summary of approximately 900 words begins as follows: "The compensation reserve is a provision in the federal fiscal framework, agreed to by TBS and Finance, which establishes an envelope to cover the increased costs for appropriation-dependent federal organizations resulting from wage increases9." Now this is tough going for a civil servant who understands the context, so just imagine the challenge for the general public!
By using clear, simple language for government texts intended for the public, we win on at least two fronts: by making it easier to translate, and by improving access to information in both official languages. As Jean-Marie Klinkenberg states in La langue et le citoyen, it is even a question of democracy10. Citizens demand transparency and clarity of government information.
Such documents will not always be easy to produce but the results will be worth the effort. Citizens will be much happier for being well-served and for understanding the information clearly.
3. Finding what you are looking for
Citizens must not only have access to information, they must also find what they are looking for in their preferred format. In a study I published in 2002, French on the Internet, I recommended that technolinguistic tools be made available to citizens in both official languages. In addition to reaching its target audiences, government must ensure that all citizens are able to fully access the government information they seek.
For example, some 100,000 Canadians are blind or have significantly impaired vision. According to estimates, this number will double in the next 15 years as the population ages11. For this growing number of citizens, improvements must be made in the technology that reads a computerized document aloud – known as speech synthesis – or that transforms text into Braille12. This will improve access to Internet documents that are usually available only in HTML or PDF format.
The information age poses a paradox, to which the government is contributing: this network that links us is so vast and contains so much information that we do not always find what we are looking for. As information managers, you must show good judgment and be more selective regarding the information that is disseminated. Not everything can go on the Web. This means we must give preference to the best, most relevant information for serving the public. In certain cases, this means summarizing and popularizing what is useful for citizens, and in both official languages.
Disseminating information does not always guarantee full access to this information. The public needs guides and the means to filter the information. It would therefore be very difficult to do without search tools like Yahoo! or Google. Without these search engines, it would be impossible for Internet users to find the information they are looking for. Federal departments and agencies must also equip their sites with such tools and ensure that documents can be found and retrieved in both official languages.
4. The role of information managers
I hope I have convinced you of the importance of taking citizen satisfaction seriously when launching e-government projects. You are the guardians of one of our most precious resources in the knowledge economy. For this reason, you must see that these new tools are really at the service of citizens. Information must be managed effectively and the greatest care must be taken to make the right information available to the public.
What, more specifically, are the challenges?
First of all, a balance must be struck between technological development and a personalized approach to government services. The technology and tools you use are evolving at a phenomenal speed. At this pace, we risk bypassing the basics. Technological tools will not achieve their purpose unless they are part of an overall approach of service to the public. Citizens must feel committed and have a say in electronic government. In business, they say the customer is always right. In public or government affairs, the challenge is to provide service and meet our citizens' expectations. Technology will be much more useful when it addresses citizens' real concerns.
The challenge, I must reiterate, is also cultural. The public service has ways of doing things and tried and true processes. Technology is upsetting all of that. One of the target audiences in the current changes is the public service itself as a community. This group must have the time to adapt and develop a new approach. Throughout the public service, we need to make the language used on the Web intelligible to our citizens.
Technology may require us to rethink some of our current procedures or develop new ones. For example, promising Canadians that you will answer their e-mails in 24 or 48 hours, in the language of their choice, is one thing. Doing so is another matter! In fact, fulfilling such a promise could require significant changes in the chain of production and dissemination of government information or, alternatively, recourse to new technologies.
Another challenge in this move towards e-government is the role of other delivery methods. New technology will probably become the most widespread method for offering services to the public. At the same time, of course, the tried and true methods must be retained. Citizens' needs are such that certain traditional forms of providing service, by telephone or in person, must be maintained. In this sense, the new and old ways of serving the public complement each other and do not restrict citizens' choices regarding access to government services.
As information managers, you have a crucial role to play in guiding the evolution of technology and promoting the cultural change that is beginning.
Conclusion
During this speech, I have attempted to demonstrate that e-government will not be successful in Canada unless a citizen-centred approach is developed in support of the technological shift. The language issue, and especially citizens' needs, must be at the heart of your concerns.
Over and above the benefits that technology offers us, we must remember that the people at the controls, who will be making this shift, are men and women like you. You could also become the first agents of a cultural change that reconciles technology and customer satisfaction. In addition to promoting our linguistic duality, this change must also meet the expectations of Canadians. I urge you to act without delay, with diligence, and with ears open to the concerns of our citizens.
Thank you.
Notes
1 This result is obtained when a great deal of information is involved. When there is only a small amount of information, the rate drops to 1.5 times. See http://www.cslf.gouv.qc.ca/Publications/PubF167/F167.pdf. (PDF document - 364 Kb)
3 See http://www.temps-reels.net/article.php3?id_article=1005 (in French only).
4 See http://www.nald.ca/nls/ials/ialsreps/HIGH3.HTM.
5 See http://www.nald.ca/nls/ials/ialsreps/HIGH2.HTM.
6 See http://www.nald.ca/nls/ials/youth/english/page12.htm.
7 See http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html.
8 It is in fact the third requirement. See http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubspol/sipubs/comm/comm1e.asp
9 See http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/report/orp/2002/iamcr-vigrr1_e.asp.
10 Klinkenberg, Jean-Marie. (2002) La langue et le citoyen, Paris, Presses universitaires de France, p. 125.
11 See http://www.cnib.ca/.
12 See, for example, Humanware products (formerly Visuaide), www.humanware.com.
