Cognitive Web Accessibility: Readability Products & Services

These resources are free- and commercial products, services and Web sites.

  • Design To Read
    "If you are designing for, or researching, people who do not read easily then we want to provide ways for you share ideas and research. Our ultimate aim is to improve the lives of people who do not read easily ...".
  • Clippable Bookmarklet
    "Formerly known as 'Readability 2'". Free Web-browser bookmarklet that strips all distractions from Web pages, and attempts to show only the primary text content.
  • Readability Leaflet: How to Produce Clear, Written Materials for a Range of Readers
    "Readability shows how both the design and readability level of texts can be adjusted to ensure that those with difficulties do not encounter an unnecessary barrier. It covers areas such as the use of white space, appropriate font choice and sentence length, as well as offering a readability test that helps determine how accessible text is to a disadvantaged reader."
  • TidyRead
    "TidyRead renders web pages with better readability as an-easy-to-read manner, similar to eBooks, by accurately extracting the context text and removing the cluttered materials."
  • Tar Heel Reader
    "... a collection of free, easy-to-read, and accessible books on a wide range of topics. The books may be downloaded as slide shows in PowerPoint, Impress, or Flash format. Each book can be speech enabled and accessed using multiple interfaces, including touch screens, the IntelliKeys with custom overlays, and 1 to 3 switches." ... "This site is a result of a collaboration between Center for Literacy and Disability Studies and the department of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill."
  • Easy Read Translation Services
    "Easy Read Translation makes documents and websites easy to read. We use Easy Read words and symbols to translate your documents and information. Our Easy Read services follow the Equality and Human Rights guidelines for Easy Read Translation." Commercial Service.
  • The Information Foyer
    "We work with you to create your accessible information. The first step in making your documents accessible is to contact us. Talk to us. Send us your document by email or post and we will give you a quote." Commercial Service.
  • Working with Words
    "Working with Words makes information easy for people with learning difficulties and people with low literacy."
  • Twurdy Search - Search for Readable Results
    Twurdy is a Web search engine that "... uses text analysis software to 'read' each page before it is displayed in the results. Then Twurdy gives each page a readability level. Twurdy then shows the readability level of the page along with a color coded system to help users determine how easy the page will be to understand."
  • VocabProfile - English
    Upon submission of text, VocabProfile details "... how many words the text contains from the following four frequency levels: (1) the list of the most frequent 1000 word families, (2) the second 1000, (3) the Academic Word List, and (4) words that do not appear on the other lists."
  • StoryToolz: Readability Statistics
    Determines the average grade level of a text passage. Upon submission of the text, StoryToolz produces scores from several readability algorithms and averages them. It also produces statistics on sentences and word usage.

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