---
title: Improving the usability and accessibility of a healthcare website by being
  mindful of reading level
teaser: 'Improving the reading level is often overlooked or downplayed as unglamorous
  work. Yet it is one of the most effective things you can do to make a product more
  usable.

  '
tags: accessibility,user experience,writing
author: Eric Bailey
published_on: 2020-08-06
---

Improving the [reading level][reading-level] is often overlooked or downplayed
as unglamorous work. Yet it is one of the most effective things you can do to
make a product more usable.

Every product benefits from being easy to understand. Clear and concise language
removes ambiguity. Less ambiguity means there’s less to think about when
learning how to operate a website.

The healthcare industry in particular benefits from a considered reading level.
With healthcare, it’s important to be as explicit as possible. It could quite
literally be a life or death situation.

## The client

We recently redesigned a website for caregivers. It helps provide resources and
support for caretaking of family and loved ones. Here, we discovered that paying
attention to reading level was especially important.

[User testing][user-testing] taught us that many caretakers speak English as a
second language. We also learned that many new caretakers were coming to the
website in a charged emotional state.

This makes sense. Learning how to care for a loved one is a deeply personal act.
It often requires the caretaker to reevaluate an existing relationship. Stress
may alter a native English speaker's [ability to process
information][process-info]. This is to say nothing about significant changes to
their lifestyle.

Knowing your audience is one thing. Meeting them where they are is another.

For the redesign, we paid special attention to the brevity and reading level of
our content. Tools like [Hemingway][hemingway] helped with this, as well as
limiting the number of characters in some CMS input fields. We also stressed
the importance of minding the reading level after we left.

## Cognitive accessibility

Considerate and deliberate language choice is a central part of [cognitive
accessibility][coga]. This is an example of client needs indirectly touching on
[accessibility compliance][compliance].

It’s also a great demonstration how better accessibility efforts benefit
everyone. Making content easier to understand increases the chances that
everyone will be able to understand it. To quote [GOV.UK’s Government Design
Principles][govuk], we “do the hard work to make it simple.”

Don’t take my word for it. Following the relaunch, the site saw dramatic
increases in:

- Unique page views,
- Returning users, and
- Average time on site.

I don’t know about you, but those seem like some pretty good outcomes to me.

[reading-level]: https://webaim.org/techniques/writing/
[user-testing]: https://thoughtbot.com/services/design-research
[process-info]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA-TLX
[hemingway]: http://www.hemingwayapp.com/
[coga]: https://thenextweb.com/growth-quarters/2020/04/06/designing-for-cognitive-accessibility-where-to-begin/
[compliance]: https://jebswebs.net/blog/2020/08/w3c-publishes-cognitive-accessibility-task-force-publication/
[govuk]: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/government-design-principles#do-the-hard-work-to-make-it-simple