Content's “reading level” describes how easy or difficult it is to read and understand. The higher the reading level, the more difficult the text.
There are many factors that can impact someone’s ability to read higher reading level text. For example, in Oregon:
- 3% of adults in 2016 lived in limited English speaking households (Oregon Communities Reporter).
- 6% of the population in 2018 had a cognitive disability (DisabilityStatistics.org).
- 10% of the population in 2003 lacked basic literacy skills (National Center for Education Statistics).
In addition, studies show that text at a lower reading level is better understood and retained by people of all reading levels. Also note that text at a lower reading level is more likely to be translated accurately by machine translators.
General Resources
The following resources are helpful regardless of which platform you are working on.
How To By Platform
Microsoft Word
- Documentation from Microsoft on how to check the reading level of a Word document.