DACS should provide guidance on making descriptive language accessible

[alisonclemens]

Link to relevant DACS principle

Principle 7: Archival description is accessible.

Describe how DACS does not currently meet this principle

DACS currently does not provide guidance on how archivists can or should make descriptive language accessible. There is no guidance on how to make choices about what language description should be created in (e.g., English vs. non-English languages); no guidance about framing, phrasing, and length for descriptive language (e.g., avoiding jargon, considering plain language and reading level, writing with succinctness in mind); and no guidance about using tools that support accessible description.

There is also no guidance about using alternative controlled vocabularies that are more accessible / community oriented, in cases where LCNAF (for example) does not meet that need; this is an issue in name headings but also in topical subjects, which DACS identifies as out of scope.

I expect that this will require a

• Minor change to DACS
• Major change to DACS

Link(s) to any relevant part(s) of DACS

Overview of Archival Description; Introduction to Describing Archival Materials; Part II