Welcome to this deeper-dive series of blog posts! I’ll be digging in to some accessibility topics that relate to my presentations on accessibility, with the goal of providing you with information and resources to make your workplace more accessible. The second post in this series is on Writing for Readability. (Did you miss the first post on Writing ALT Text?)
What is Readability?
Writing for readability is all about making your text clear, concise, and easy to understand for your target audience. Readability is crucial for accessibility because it ensures everyone can understand the information being presented, regardless of their abilities. Readable content benefits people with cognitive disabilities and reading disorders like dyslexia, users of assistive technology like screen readers and text-to-speech software, and even non-native speakers. (It can even improve your website’s search engine rankings too!)
Here are some easy ways to improve your readability:
Simple and clear language: Write in plain, simple language whenever possible. Avoid jargon, complex words, and overly technical terms unless they are essential. If you do use a specialized term, define it for the reader. If you use acronyms or abbreviations, spell them out on first use.
Sentence and paragraph structure: Keep sentences short, but varied in length. A mix of sentence lengths keeps the writing interesting, but avoid going overboard with long sentences that are hard to follow. Keep paragraphs short and easy to digest.
Active voice: Generally, active voice is more concise and engaging than passive voice. For example, instead of saying “The keyboard was sat upon by the cat,” say “The cat sat on the keyboard.”
Organization: Organize your writing with a clear flow of information. Use headings, subheadings, bullet points, and transitions to guide the reader through your ideas – and to improve navigation by assistive technology.
Can I Get A Checklist?
Even better than a checklist is trying out a Readability Checker: There are online tools and software programs that can analyze your writing and suggest ways to improve readability. These tools can give you a readability score, which indicates the approximate reading level required to understand your text. (One of my favorites is Hemingway!)