· Understanding Guideline 3.1 L3 SC5
· Techniques for meeting Guideline 3.1 L3 SC5
· Benefits and Examples of Guideline 3.1 L3 SC5
5. For delivery units at the first or second level in a set of delivery units, text content can be read by adults with the reading ability expected for native speakers who have completed fewer than seven years of school.
Note: This success criterion is in DRAFT form. It is presented to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group as a formal proposal, but it has not earned the consensus of the Working Group, and it does not appear in the current Public Working Draft at http://www.w3.org/tr/wcag20. It is presented here for discussion only. It must not be cited as a normative reference.
Key terms and important concepts
Education level
Years of school completed, or highest degree achieved.
Readability formula
Readability formulas measure whether text will be easy or difficult to read. A high readability score usually means that the text should be easy to read, while a low score means that the text is difficult. Readability formulas assume that longer sentences are more complex than shorter ones, and therefore harder to read. Readability formulas also assume that shorter words are easier to read than longer ones.
In some languages, readability formulas measure sentence-length by counting characters instead of words. Readability formulas for languages that allow more than one script within a single document (such as Japanese katakana and hiragana) may also consider the number of scripts used in the text as a measure of difficulty.
Results of readability tests are often expressed in terms of the education level needed to recognize words andsentences in the text. Thus readability formulas can help authors write content that matches the education level or reading ability of the intended audience.
First level
First-level content is what users see or hear first: the home page of a Web site, for example, or the first speech in an interactive voice application.
Second level
Second-level Web content is content that users can reach by following one link from the home page, by choosing an option from a voice menu, etc. On news sites, for example, full stories often appear on second-level pages. (The first-level page lists the day’s major headlines and provides links to the stories.)
Delivery unit
[Add plain-language paraphrase approved on 2005-04-28 call.]
A set of material transferred between two cooperating web programs as the response to a single HTTP request. The transfer might, for example, be between an origin server and a user agent.
The intent of this success criterion is to make the most important Web content easy to read. It assumes that the most important content appears on the home page (or its equivalent) and in material that can be reached directly from the home page or its equivalent. This success criterion sets the maximum education level required to read this important content at less than seven years of school. This is generally equivalent to the end of primary education according to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED). This level has been chosen because a significant percentage of adults who read below this level (possibly as many as 80%) are estimated to have learning disabilities.
Education levels and compulsory education requirements vary from country to country. Reading ability also varies from country to country, and sometimes from region to region within the same country.
The link between reading ability and education level is not always clear. For example, government statistics (2004) show that more than 85 per cent of adults in the United States between 25 and 64 years of age have finished an upper secondary education (high school). However, the International Adult Literacy Survey (1994-98) found that the United States ranked last among 19 high-performing economies in the literacy rate of adults with less than an upper secondary education.
The United States is just one example of a larger problem that affects many countries. Adults who have low literacy skills are very likely to have undiagnosed learning disabilities.
Here are a few more items to help put this requirement in context:
· The European Union requires readability tests of information leaflets about drugs and other medical products, to ensure that the members of the public can find and read the information they need.
· Canada’s Northwest Territories Literacy Council recommends writing at the fifth- or sixth-grade level when the intended audience has fewer than eight years of school or may include non-native speakers.
· Jakob Nielsen reported (2005) that both lower- and higher-literacy users had significantly greater success when content was written in a way that would satisfy this success criterion and the one following (Guideline 3.1 L3 SC6).
This success criterion applies to text at the first or second level on a Web site, Web application, or other online resource.
Follow these steps to measure the difficulty of text content:
Follow these steps to measure the difficulty of text content:
1. Choose a readability formula that will work with your content. Some issues to consider are:
a. Does the content include incomplete sentences such as list items, section titles, and so on? If so, consider using a readability formula that does not require complete sentences.
b. Choose passages that represent the different types or styles of text on your site. It is not necessary to include every word of a long text in the readability analysis. Many Web sites contain different types of information written in different styles for different groups of users. Test a representative sample.
c. Choose passages that meet the length requirements for your readability formula. Some formulas are based on 100-word passages; others use 150 words. And some describe procedures that can be used for very short texts.
2. Apply the formula, or run the readability test in your word processor. (Note that commercial word processors may not give you a choice of which formula to use.)
3. Interpret the results. This may involve plotting the score on a graph or, more often, looking up the score in a table or chart developed for the chosen formula.
4. Record the results. Include the raw data as well as the readability score or grade.
Techniques for making text easier to read
Note: The following are techniques, not rules. Like Like any other technique, they must be used with skill and understanding in order to achieve good results.
1. Try to keep sentences short. For example, US and European Union readability guidelines recommend 20 words per sentence as a good average.
2. Consider breaking longer sentences into two sentences, especially if the original sentence contains 25 words or more. (Note that this technique may require additional changes to both of the “new” sentences.)
3. Try to limit the number of long words, especially if you are not certain that the intended audience will know what they mean. (Note: different countries and different languages have different concepts of what “long” words are. English words with three or more syllables are usually considered “long.” However, the Lix readability formula used in several European countries counts any word with six or more letters as a “long” word.)
4. Consider replacing long words with shorter ones that have the same or very similar meaning. some organizations publish lists of common words. Such lists may help you replace long or unfamiliar words with shorter ones that may be easier to recognize. (Note: sometimes a long word that has the exact meaning you need is better than a shorter word that means something different.)
· How to use the <link> element to define an alternative representation
· Write for people who have finished only five years of school.
· Use concept-coding to support tools that convert text to symbol languages used for Augmentative and Alternative Communication
This success criterion benefits people with learning disabilities and cognitive impairments who can understand complex ideas and processes presented in highly readable text.
Learning disabilities such as dyslexia affect the ability to recognize words and sentences. This is called decoding. Decoding must be automatic in order for people to read fluently. People who cannot read fluently often decode the text a word at a time. The act of decoding text word by word is slow and tiring. It consumes much of the mental energy that most people are able to use for understanding what they read.
People with learning disabilities are able to understand very complex ideas and processes. People with these limitations have become successful scientists, engineers, artists, attorneys, and skilled professionals in many other fields. But they are often at a significant disadvantage when ideas and information are available only in complex textual presentations.
Example 1: A moderately difficult description of a complex and unfamiliar natural event.
In a dazzling and dramatic portrait painted by the Sun, the long thin shadows of Saturn's rings sweep across the planet's northern latitudes. Within the shadows, bright bands represent areas where the ring material is less dense, while dark strips and wave patterns reveal areas of denser material.
The shadow darkens sharply near upper right, corresponding to the boundary of the thin C ring with the denser B ring. A wide-field, natural color view of these shadows can be seen here.
The globe of Saturn's moon Mimas (398 kilometers, or 247 miles across) has wandered into view near the bottom of the frame. A few of the large craters on this small moon are visible.
Note: The description in Example 1 is taken from NASA – Sun-Striped Saturn, at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia06574.html. Retrieved 2005-03-08.
Note: This description received a Flesch Reading Ease score of 57.9 and a Flesch-Kinkaid Grade Level of 9.9. This result means that people in the United States who have finished almost 10 years of school should be able to recognize the words and sentences.
Example 2. The same description, edited for a lower reading level.
The long thin shadows of Saturn's rings sweep across the planet’s northern regions. Bright bands within the shadows show areas where the ring material is less dense. Dark strips and wave patterns show denser areas.
The shadow darkens sharply near the top right. This is where the thin C ring meets the denser B ring. This shows a wide-field, natural color view of these shadows.
The globe of Saturn's moon Mimas (398 kilometers, or 247 miles across) appears near the bottom of the frame. A few of the large craters on this small moon are visible.
[Note: This edited version of the description was rated at 72.1 on the Flesch Reading Ease scale, meaning that people beginning their sixth year of school should be able to read the description. The changes from the original are as follows: Some long words such as “latitudes” and “reveal” have been replaced by shorter words with similar meanings (“regions,” “show”), and some sentences have been shortened.]
· A Plain Language Audit Tool provides a checklist for determining whether documents can be edited for clarity and “plain language.” The checklist includes a readability assessment. Available from the Northwest Territories (Canada) Literacy Council at http://www.nwt.literacy.ca/plainlng/auditool/cover.htm.
· The Plain Language Network Web site provides many useful resources to help writers produce documents that communicate clearly in a variety of cultural and rhetorical contexts. See http://www.plainlanguagenetwork.org/.
· The US government’s plain language Web site at http://www.plainlanguage.gov provides general information about plain language as well as information about use of plain language in US government documents, including legal requirements
· The Plain English Campaign Web site provides useful information and guidance for authors writing in English.
· The Swedish government’s Plain Language site provides similar
· Hall, T., and Strangman, N. CAST: Graphic organizers. Retrieved 5 April 2005 from http://www.cast.org/publications/ncac/ncac_go.html#startcontent. This article illustrates several differet kinds of graphic organizers, explains how each type may be useful, and summarizes research findings that graphic organizers support learning, especially among students with learning disabilities.