3.1 Readable

Make text content readable and understandable.

Overview

Making content understandable includes very basic concepts like using proper grammar and punctuation, providing a non-busy layout, and avoiding long paragraphs or complex sentences. There are some less obvious issues to address as well.

Is English your first language? Even if English is your first language, and you recognize it on a website that clearly looks like English, but is not defined as the main language, you'll find that assistive technology like screen readers can't always guess that language correctly when reading the text. The same set of letters that create a word can mean something different in a variety of languages and be pronounced differently, confusing screen reader users.

Therefore, all documents and websites should have the default, or main, language defined explicitly. If a portion of the webpage is in another language, like a quote, then the language for that quote needs to be defined explicitly.

Do you know all the jargon at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi? You probably didn't before coming to A&M-Corpus Christi. We use so many abbreviations, some of which sound like common words. To reduce the confusion, you should define abbreviations before using them further down your document or web page. Read more tips on increasing readability.