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Check Reading Level

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Summary

Section titled “Summary”

Readability measures how hard or easy it is to read written text. It’s essential to write in a way that is easy to understand. A minimum reading level of 7th to 9th grade:

  • Provides a standard for measuring the complexity of written content.
  • Indicates when you need a simpler version of complex content.

Overview

Section titled “Overview”

Accessibility techniques such as using plain language and avoiding confusing words help make content more readable. However, these procedures do not provide a way to measure readability. Establishing a minimum reading level for accessibility provides an objective way to measure the complexity of written content.

Writing to a lower-secondary reading level supports:

  • People who have cognitive or learning disabilities.
  • People worldwide who read at or below this level.

Text written at higher reading levels should have supplemental or alternative content.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) ask for content written above a lower secondary education level to have supplemental or alternate content. Organizations often ignore this WCAG guideline because it is level AAA, the highest level of accessibility compliance. This guideline should receive more attention, as most people read at or below a lower secondary education level. Reading level is a leading indicator of how well people will understand your content.

Much like the plain language standard, we need to define reading level, also referred to as readability, in a way that is understood internationally and applicable in most languages. The International Standard Classification of Education is the basis of the WCAG reading-level guidelines. This standard defines a lower-secondary education as the two or three years of education that begin after students complete the first six years of school. It is equivalent to grades 7 through 9 in the U.S. and Canada.

Most tools that check reading levels generate results as a grade level based on the International Standard Classification of Education. Reading-level formulas calculate the length of words and sentences in the text to determine the average length of words and sentences. Many formulas also consider the number of syllables in each word. Readability formulas use this information to calculate the overall complexity of the text. Most reading-level tools use more than one type of formula to calculate readability.

This article on Readability (Readable) describes the formulas used to determine reading level.

Who is Helped

Section titled “Who is Helped”

Based on the International Assessment of Adult Competencies 2012 report, 70% of Americans read at a 7th-8th grade reading level. The U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Adult Literacy reports that 43% of Americans have low literacy. Globally, most technology-rich countries have similar reading levels.

These statistics show that many people read at lower levels within any group. These individuals may include people who are native speakers of another language, new to the topic, or temporarily distracted. All these individuals benefit when the content is more readable.

Any group can include individuals with cognitive and learning disabilities that affect language skills, even when the content targets a highly educated audience. Your audience may include people with reading and processing difficulties, limited memory, and focus challenges. Providing supplemental or alternative content for complex reading materials can benefit these individuals.

People who are neurodivergent benefit from making the text more readable and from techniques used to supplement content with a higher reading level.

Creating or supplementing content with text written at a lower-secondary education level makes information easier for everyone to understand.

Guidelines

Section titled “Guidelines”

Guidelines that support good readability include:

  • Write at a lower secondary education level.
  • Provide supplemental or alternate content.
  • Use plain language.
  • Write for your audience.
  • Check spelling and grammar.
  • Check the reading level.

Write at a Lower Secondary Education Level

Section titled “Write at a Lower Secondary Education Level”

Write content for easy reading at a lower secondary education level.

Exceptions - You can ignore these exceptions or remove them from the text before testing:

  • Proper names of people and places.
  • Titles of documents, books, movies, etc.

Qualification - This qualification affects content containing multiple languages:

  • Calculate reading levels for each language that forms at least 5% of the content and that you use in whole sentences or paragraphs (not just individual words or phrases).
  • Use the language with the lowest readability (the highest reading level) as the score for the page.

Provide Supplemental or Alternate Content

Section titled “Provide Supplemental or Alternate Content”

Provide supplemental or alternate content for content written at a more advanced reading level. WCAG recommends the following techniques, singly or in combination, but you can use other techniques. For example, you can provide a glossary that defines technical terms to supplement content in an equipment manual.

  • Provide a summary written at a lower secondary education reading level.

    • A summary lets readers quickly decide if a web page or document meets their needs.

    • Write the summary at a lower secondary education level, even if the rest of the document is more complex.

    • See Provide a Summary for more information.

  • Provide visual illustrations, pictures, and symbols to help explain the text.

    • Additional visual information that reinforces the written content helps some individuals with cognitive or learning disabilities that affect reading skills. Visual content can include charts, graphs, animations, photographs, icons, or other visual cues that supplement and support the text.

    • For example, an individual with disabilities that affect their reading skills may have difficulties understanding the text of a mutual fund’s annual report. A graph illustrating the yearly gains and losses may be easier to understand.

  • Simplify the content and make it easier to read.

    • Use simpler words and shorter, simpler sentences. These two changes can significantly lower the reading level of your content.

    • Consider using the Easy-to-Read Guidelines (Inclusion Europe) to simplify content. These guidelines can make reading easier for some individuals. Many of these guidelines overlap with the Plain Language Guidelines, but some are unique. For example, they start each sentence on a new line and define difficult words each time they’re used.

    • What does Easy-to-Read content look like? Inclusion Europe’s website has Easy-to-Read versions of most of its articles. Here is one easy-to-read example of an article about Using Technology to Simplify Tasks.

  • Provide an audio version of the content.

    • Some individuals with cognitive or learning disabilities that affect reading, such as dyslexia, can process information much better when they hear it instead of reading it.

    • For example, someone who had a stroke may no longer be able to process visual information well but may be able to process audio information.

  • Provide a sign language version of the content, especially if there is information people must understand. For example, people must understand how to exit a building in case of fire.

    • Sign language is usually the primary language for people in the Deaf community. Any other languages they may use - English, Japanese, German, etc. - are their secondary language.

Use Plain Language

Section titled “Use Plain Language”

Following the plain language guidelines helps everyone understand information better, but can have an even more significant impact on people with cognitive and learning disabilities that affect reading skills.

  • Write as clearly and simply as possible.
  • Use clear, descriptive words in headings, labels, links, buttons, navigational elements, instructions, and error messages.
  • Use common words and terms with their most common meanings.
  • Choose simple words and phrases over complex words and convoluted phrases. In languages with many tenses, use the tense you would most commonly use to convey an idea.
  • Keep sentences and paragraphs short.
  • Check spelling and grammar.

The right words make it easier for people to find needed information, complete tasks, and fill out forms. Sometimes complex ideas require complex words and phrases. While using complex content when needed is okay, you shouldn’t add complexity for its own sake.

Write for Your Audience

Section titled “Write for Your Audience”

Always use the recommended reading levels when writing for a general audience. When you know the audience, you should write at a level that is appropriate to that audience. For example, the writing level suitable for young children differs significantly from that for college students.

Always include supplemental or alternate content when writing text at a more advanced reading level. Even when the audience is highly educated or has specialized subject-matter knowledge, some people, such as those with dyslexia, may have difficulty processing language. Other individuals may be new to the topic and unfamiliar with all the terms.

Creating or supplementing content with text written at a lower secondary education level reduces these individuals’ cognitive load. Someone with dyslexia will find it easier to process text that is easy to read, while someone unfamiliar with a specific topic will benefit from having technical terms defined.

Check Spelling and Grammar

Section titled “Check Spelling and Grammar”

Spelling and grammar-checking tools can suggest changes to simplify complex words and sentences. These changes can significantly lower the reading level of text content.

How to Check Reading Level

Section titled “How to Check Reading Level”

Many popular word processors include tools to check reading levels. Word processors with readability checkers are more likely than other tools to provide test results for languages other than English.

Grammar-checking tools such as Hemingway may include mechanisms to check reading levels. This tool is helpful as you can instantly see how your changes impact the reading level.

Many online tools are available that are designed specifically to check reading levels. These are generally more sophisticated than the reading-level tools embedded in word processors. They often use multiple formulas to calculate reading levels. Check Reading Level, for example, uses six readability formulas to provide a composite reading score. It also estimates the time needed to read the text, provides valuable statistics about the text, and lists potentially complex words.

A few of the many online reading-level tools available include:

Some online tools limit the amount of text they can check at one time. For these tools, use representative samples of smaller amounts of text taken throughout the page. Use the page’s lowest readability score (the highest reading level).

Checking Content in Spanish

Section titled “Checking Content in Spanish”

You can use the Fernandez-Huerta Index to measure the readability of a text in Spanish. This index measures sentence length and the number of syllables per word. Texts receive a score for readability. A higher score indicates that the text is more readable. The Index works for varieties of Spanish across the Spanish-speaking world. Aim for 6-8 years of schooling, or a score above 60.

Checking Content in French

Section titled “Checking Content in French”

Many tools can help you check content in French. While different Francophone countries use different standards, you can aim for 6-8 years of schooling as the reading level. The Government of Quebec recommends the Scolarius tool. In this tool, a score under 100 will be readable with 6-8 years of schooling, or a lower secondary level of education.

References

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