Embracing Plain Language for Better Accessibility
Ashley Bischoff
Embracing Plain Language for Better Accessibility
By Ashley Bischoff
(You can move between slides with the arrow keys.)
What makes some writing more complicated than others?
How do I know if my writing is complicated?
It comes down to sentence length and syllables.
For example, here’s a terrible sentence from 3.1.5:
Readability formulas are available for at least some languages when running the spell checkers in popular software if you specify in the options of this engine that you want to have the statistics when it has finished checking your documents.
The more complex the material, the shorter the sentences should be.
You also want variety.
You should have a few 35-word sentences and some 3-word sentences.
Just aim for an average of around 20-some words.
That terrible sentence from WCAG 3.1.5 is easier to read once it’s split into smaller sentences:
Readability formulas are often available when running the spellchecker in your word processor.
You can specify options to show those statistics when it’s finished checking your document.
Sentence length is half the battle.
Cutting syllables is the other half.
You can think of words as Tetris pieces.
Syllables are the building blocks of words.
You can think of one-syllable words (such as “so”) like 2-block Tetris pieces.
And you can think of two-syllable words (such as “update”) like 3-block Tetris pieces.
Things start to get a bit tricky with three-syllable words, which amount to 5-block Tetris pieces.
And four-syllable words, which are like 7-block Tetris pieces, don’t make things any easier.
And when it comes to five-syllable words, well, they’re about as much fun as toothpaste with orange juice.
Sometimes long words might be unavoidable.
And if you were to be saddled with one or two of these in a Tetris game, you might be able to get by.
But the game just wouldn’t be fun anymore if you were to be handed huge pieces like these over and over and over.
“prior to” → “before”
That takes you from 3 syllables… to 2.
“Start your screen reader prior to the test.”
“Start your screen reader before the test.”
“commence” → “start”
That takes you from 2 syllables… to 1.
“We will commence testing on Tuesday.”
“We will start testing on Tuesday.”
“sufficient” → “enough”
That takes you from 3 syllables… to 2.
“The nav bar doesn’t have sufficient contrast.”
“The nav bar doesn’t have enough contrast.”
“in order to” → “to”
That takes you from 4 syllables… to 1.
“Enable grayscale mode in order to see the page without color.”
“Enable grayscale mode to see the page without color.”
“accordingly” or “consequently” → “so”
That takes you from 4 syllables… to 1.
“This link isn’t focusable.
Consequently, it isn’t accessible.”
“This link isn’t focusable.
So it isn’t accessible.”
“the following” → “this”
That takes you from 4 syllables… to 1.
“Use the guidelines in the following table:”
“Use the guidelines in this table:”
“The widget supports the following keyboard shortcuts:”
“The widget supports these keyboard shortcuts:”
“However” → “But”
That takes you from 3 syllables… to 1.
“That works in JAWS.
However, it doesn’t work in VoiceOver.”
“That works in JAWS.
But it doesn’t work in VoiceOver.”
But when it comes to syllables,
There’s one trick that makes more of a difference than any of these: contractions.
“do not” → “don’t”
That takes you from 2 syllables… to 1.
“cannot” → “can’t”
That takes you from 2 syllables… to 1.
Here’s what Tom discovered across his analysis of newspapers and magazines in particular:
| contraction |
use in newspapers & magazines
|
| don’t |
7.7 times more often than “do not” |
| can’t |
2.9 times more often than “cannot” |
| doesn’t |
2.8 times more often than “does not” |
| didn’t |
2.7 times more often than “did not” |
| won’t |
2.6 times more often than “will not” |
The tide has turned.
And what was once avoided in some contexts is now commonplace.
And style guides have been on board the contraction train for years.
Invariably, movie robots end up saying stuff like—
I will be glad to see them if they do not get mad.
—rather than—
I’ll be glad to see them if they don’t get mad.
They do that because screenwriters know that the easiest way to make anyone sound like a robot is to take away all their contractions.
And while that may sound like a cheap trick, it works every time.
So the next time you’re writing something for a client, ask yourself this:
Do I want to sound like
an automaton?
Or do I want to sound like a person?
Here’s how you can check your readability.
Once you’re at the Readability Analyzer, paste your content into the text box, and the site will calculate your text’s readability numbers.
Looks like WCAG doesn’t fare too well.
@FriendlyAshley
a11y: @HandCoding /
words: @FriendlyAshley
