I work for an organization that serves individuals with disabilities. We often create materials for a variety of audiences and we want to make sure that the content is accessible. Are there any online tools or resources that can help us evaluate the level of reading materials? Where could we find suggestions for how to simplify the reading level of text?
There are many websites and software programs that can calculate readability for you. For shorter pieces of text, you can use one of the many online readability programs available listed below. Most of them allow you to paste text into a window, or link directly to an URL (for determining readability of websites).
Before getting started, it would be a good idea to read about the different SMOG readability metrics(opens in a new window) and how reading level is determined. Once you have an idea of what might work best, you can check out some of these online tools for calculating readability.
For example:
- Readability Test Tool(opens in a new window): test the readability of a webpage or specific text
- Readability-Score.com(opens in a new window): read text and URLs for free, and files and bulk content for a fee
- Readability Formulas(opens in a new window): takes a sample of your writing and calculates the number of sentences, words, syllables, and characters in your sample
- JuicyStudio(opens in a new window): Test website readability; also provides information about different scales, what scores mean, etc.