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Reading Between the Lines: Improving your Business for Those with Low Literacy

1 in 5 Americans struggles to read. Is your business failing to market to everyone?

If you’re privileged enough to be able to read this article with ease, adult literacy may not be something that often crosses your mind. However, for a huge percentage of our country, it represents a significant barrier to accessing services and businesses. 

130 million Americans struggle with low literacy, with 54% of adults reading below a fifth-grade level. Approximately 1 in 5 people in the US is functionally illiterate, meaning that they may not be able to read any printed material at all. This statistic varies by state, with states like New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, California, and Florida with some of the lowest literacy rates in the nation.

While there are many organizations and government funding programs dedicated to improving adult literacy, it is still something many people struggle with on a daily basis. Here are a few simple ways to make your business more accessible to people with low literacy. 

  1. Include visuals or pictures alongside words on your websites, menus, and informational materials. Putting an image alongside your text may help people understand context clues and help them understand concepts in your writing that otherwise may have been above their level. Infographics can break down complicated concepts into their most simple, readable form. You can also consider utilizing video and audio recordings in combination with text online when possible. 
  2. Include accessibility features on websites that allow for text to be read aloud. On Microsoft Word, you can check the accessibility of a document, like whether it can be read easily by a screen reader, by clicking Review in the top bar, then Check Accessibility. 
  3. Utilize features through Microsoft Word to determine the “grade level” of any materials you’re writing. To do this first click Home, then Editor all the way on the right side of the bar. Scroll down to Insights and click Document Stats. This will show you the “Flesch Reading Ease” score and the “Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level.” Try to keep the scores around 60 and an eighth-grade level, respectively. TechWhirl writes that websites’ “home pages, landing pages, and important category pages” should be written at a sixth-grade level.  
  4. Place important information at the very top of the webpage. According to the Nielsen Norman Group, low-literacy readers tend to scroll down less of the page and often give up searching for information quickly. Placing the most important info at the top makes it more likely that it will be seen and read. 

These changes improve the likelihood that a customer with low literacy will choose your business over all the others out there. There is a myriad of reasons why a person may have a low literacy level. Regardless of the cause, all customers deserve respect and a comfortable and dignified experience in any business. With just a little mindfulness and a few simple additional steps in creating written materials, you can help people who are already struggling and help them feel welcome in your business.