First published: 2nd March 2022
Last updated: 2nd March 2022
Summary
Perhaps most fundamentally, content should be understandable by the people who are trying to read it.
Keep in mind that some people reading your content may have a permanent disability or learning difficulty which makes it harder to comprehend the words on the page, some people may be suffering a temporary difficulty such as distress or tiredness, and many may not speak English as their first language.
There are 6 WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) criteria directly related to the readability of the content we provide. While a couple refer to the ability to determine the human language of the page and left to your developers, the others encourage us to make the content we write clear and comprehensible.
Key Points
- Write in clear, well-structured sentences. Review how readable your content is with an online tool - WebFX provides a good tool.
- Always write at the appropriate level for your audience, and if you don’t know what that is - the a11y project suggests that you aim for the reading level of a 12-16 year old.
- Avoid, or explain, the use of jargon and acronyms.
- Consider summarising key information in an easy to understand introduction.
Tools
- WebFX Readability Test
- Hemmingway Editor
- Flesch-Kincaid score